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Getting up to date…

7 March 2014 2 Comments

As the title would suggest, this post will hopefully bring my blog up to date with the various gigs I’ve been doing since Valentine’s Day.

Almost immediately after V-day, I drove up to Edinburgh with fellow CLOUDS member Elfair Dyer to rehearse for a few days with Esther Swift (for more information about CLOUDS click here).

We are currently learning a new trio piece for the International Harp Festival in Caernarfon, North Wales, in April. The piece is a new commission given to Esther especially for the festival. As usual, none of it is written down so we have to actually see each other to learn the music.

I am so excited about the new piece! The theme is mythology so there is a spooky story to go alongside the piece. We get to use loop pedals! The whole piece is quite dark in nature so it’s a world away from what is normally expected of a harp trio (clue: we won’t be wearing ball gowns). The sound is much edgier and more challenging.

I’m happy to say we can now play through the whole thing! We have more rehearsals coming up soon to polish everything off (and to make sure we actually know what we are doing). So fingers crossed the performance will be a success!

A few days after getting back from Scotland I had a very last minute gig. Background music for a Wake. This type of gig isn’t easy (it’s easier than a funeral service though), but the list of songs they requested were very fitting and, actually, I’m going to keep using that playlist for other background gigs too.

The very same evening I gave a talk at the Women’s Institute in Mellor, just to the south of Manchester. It’s slightly in the middle of nowhere, hurray for unlit, snakey roads with only enough room for one car.

I was a little nervous about this talk… I didn’t know if I could fill the allotted time but luckily, with playing, I was fine, plus the ladies asked lots of questions and genuinely seemed interested in the harp and the different types of work that constitute the life of a freelance musician.

The next gig I had was the following weekend, playing for a wedding reception in Sheffield. My Sheffield gigs are notorious for being stressful, I always get lost, but this one was ok. Not perfect but I found somewhere to park eventually.

The reception was in one of the University buildings.

There was a lot of champagne flowing:

And, check out the interesting table plan…

Anyway, this seemed to be a wedding of people who win at life. Everyone was beautiful and gracious (getting louder towards the end… I blame the champagne) but generally a very classy affair.

Last Thursday lunchtime I went to watch the RNCM Harp Ensemble’s lunchtime concert at the Manchester School of Art – a lovely space for a concert like this…

The photo doesn’t do it justice, trust me it looked lovely. I’ve been out of college for nearly three full years now (can’t believe it) and it’s still a little strange to see a harp ensemble concert that I’m not involved in. I mean it was refreshing in a way – the harp department had been setting up since before 9am! I remember back to my time in college and just loving the feeling of being part of such an amazing team.

Finally, we come to the gig I supposedly had last Friday, now I can’t say too much about this as I’m currently obtaining legal advice from the Musicians Union. But just to warn you, when it’s all sorted out there will be much ranting!

So that brings us just about up to date. I hope you all are enjoying the spring-like weather as much as I am! If you have any feedback please do leave me a comment.

Career

Harps of a feather, pluck together.

24 February 2014 1 Comment

Well it’s been a while since I’ve been able to post. I’ve been busy gallivanting around Great Britain on (mostly) harp related bits and bobs. There is a lot to report since my last update.

This post is becoming mammoth so I’m going to have to split it up into smaller sections…

Firstly, I got my photos back from my solo shoot with Julie Harris. I will be getting more from this shoot soon but I wanted to share the first two with you:

What other news is there… oh yes! My last blog post ‘How to make your grass greener’ has been featured on The Media Directory – don’t believe me? Check it out at http://www.themediadirectory.com/news?shownews=399

In terms of playing, a lot has been going on as well. A few Saturdays ago I had the pleasure of visiting my home city of York to play Sibelius’ First Symphony with York Guildhall Orchestra under Simon Wright. For once, there were two harps in the orchestra! Principle Harp was played by Georgina Wells – I’ve known Georgie since she tutored at a youth orchestra I used to attend so it is a real treat to play in orchestra with her. We had a great time:

The experience of playing in an orchestra is so different when you are not alone in your section. I am so used to being the only harpist that playing second harp actually brought a few challenges that I don’t usually experience. As well as watching the conductor, the music and, if I’m lucky, my hands – I also need to watch Georgina for important entries to make sure we play exactly together. I do not have enough eyes for this task!

Having said that, beefing up the harp section is so much fun – on my own, pretty much everything has to be at least mezzo forte to come across to an audience. With two harps, you can bring the music to life so much more. Even in piano passages, you can be confident that the harps will be heard. It’s great!

But away from the concert platform, having someone else in the section brings a social aspect to the day too. We chat about how we want to play certain sections, which chords to spread and which to leave straight, we help each other unpack and move harps. It becomes a team game. Harpists are often only in one or two pieces in a concert, so this means a large proportion of the day is spent alone. Now, I’m not about to start complaining about that, I happen to like my own company, thank you very much. But it makes a wonderful change to be part of a section – maybe go for a meal together in the break and share stories of bizarre gigs we’ve done, things we’d like to do etc.

So all in all, this was a lovely day, I’m playing in York again in early April and I’m looking forward to it already – or I will be, once I’ve learnt the notes.

Valentine’s Day. What’s the big deal? Restaurants are packed and more expensive than usual, everyone seems to feel this pressure to do something. I’m secretly glad I usually have a gig on this day. My boyfriend and I went for dinner the previous Tuesday to celebrate an anniversary. He proved the theory that the most exciting gifts come in little packages…

But anyway, I’m going off-topic. For Valentine’s Day I was booked to provide background music at The Florentine restaurant in Sheffield. I did not enjoy the drive there. I opted for Woodhead Pass as it’s a little less snakey than Snake Pass. However, once I got to Sheffield, my satnav took me up Hagg Hill. A word of advice – avoid this hill! I attempted it in second gear and immediately stalled. In the dark. A car behind me also turned onto the hill and followed me as I crawled up to the top, where I had to turn right.

The restaurant seemed really lovely. I was given a divine meal of beef with parsley risotto and goats cheese bonbons, and the staff were very friendly and helpful with the harp. I played for a couple of hours then drove back to Manchester. It is so interesting watching couples having dinner on Valentine’s Day. I saw at least one couple arguing. One woman was despairing because her man was so drunk. One couple brought two young loud toddlers to the restaurant (why??) and many couples were turned away because they hadn’t booked a table (rookie mistake on Valentine’s Day).

Personally I prefer to stay away from the expensive meals out on February 14th and cook something really nice with someone special, maybe get a nice bottle of wine, and just spend some time together… Cash definitely does not need to be splashed in order to incite romance.

But that’s just my opinion.

Well that’s it for this post but more will be coming soon! I’m not even close to being up to date with gig reports… As always, watch this space.

Uncategorized

London!

14 March 2012 2 Comments

Yesterday I spent the afternoon snoozing on the train down to London Euston. I had a background gig in the Royal Courts of Justice with the lovely, talented, Esther Swift. We form half of the harp quartet Clouds, I’m sure I’ll be writing lots more about us in the upcoming months but only two of us were available on this occasion so we were the Clouds duo.

Before smartphones, I have no idea how I found my way around London. I love going to visit and see the sights – I always have to visit the Natural History Museum, that’s the geeky part of me – but I had no idea where to find the Royal Courts of Justice. Google maps, what a life saver. Also being able to google ‘nearest tube to courts of justice’ proved very handy. All of which resulted in me arriving one and a half hours earlier than I needed to. Luckily there was a nice looking cafe right opposite so I sat in the window and took some photos:

This was after the first attempt, a car drove past me at the wrong moment and it just looks like a nice photo of London cab:

Anyway, Esther arrives and we decide to make our way into the building, past the security checks and then we had to wait for the harps to be delivered.

A note here, thank you so much to Holywell Music for allowing us to hire a couple of lovely harps for the evening. I’ve driven to gigs in London before with my harp – so not worth it – I had a run in with a traffic warden who made me cry (I was in a designated loading bay!) And just finding parking that’s accessible with harp is so difficult. London-based harpists… I salute you!

So hiring harps meant we could get the train down – very cheap – and I could have a drink after the gig! Amazing!

We were provided with exceptional canapés, which looked so good I had to take a picture:

I’d like to add that that’s apple juice, not whisky.

We were playing on a balcony overlooking the Great Hall, the view was fantastic:

The whole hall was packed for the event, luckily we were mic’d up so apparently we could actually be heard. It really did look fantastic. I gave my card and demo CD to a man who organises weddings in Rhodes… what an amazing gig that would be!

Finding a stair-free way to get the harps onto the balcony was interesting, everyone was telling us different things and I don’t think anybody really knew if there was a way. But we found one, unfortunately we found it after taking a harp up a lot of stairs, only to have to bring it back down – it would be comical if it wasn’t so annoying!

A big thank you as well to Ben Lloyd-Evans at Sternberg Clarke for sorting it all out for us. We had a great time!

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