Harp On Wight 2016
Concerts

The Arpatagora Trio
Bill Taylor
Richard Allen
Jia Peng
Ismael Ledesma
Cheyenne Brown and Graham Muir
Heather Yule
Mike Parker
The Dustbin Corner Ceilidh Band

Thursday 6th October 2016

Arpatagora
OPENING CONCERT: Welcome to 2016 Harp on Wight Festival
Arpatagora brings together harpist Jenny Broome and the Tagore Duo (James Halsey – cello, Frances Mason – violin) to explore the fascinating repertoire for strings and harps.
Their programme includes three original trios together with an exciting transcription.
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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNER OF 2016 HARP ON WIGHT NEW MUSIC COMPETITION
​ARPATAGORA, Jenny Broome: Harp, Frances Mason: Violin and James Halsey: Cello
 
Arpatagora brings together the harpist Jenny Broome and the Tagore Duo to explore the fascinating repertoire for strings and harp.  Their programme includes three original trios together with an exciting transcription. 
Spohr’s Trio in F minor, WoO 28, of 1806 when Spohr invited a cellist to play with him and his wife,  displays all his characteristic joie de vivre.  
Ravel’s Sonatina, originally for piano, was arranged by the harpist Carlos Salzedo for his own group, Trio de Lutèce, with whom he toured the UK in 1914.
The harpist Henriette Renié wrote her trio in 1901; it is a strong lyrical work, reminiscent of perhaps Brahms or Elgar.
Ibert’s delightful trio of 1944 comes from wartorn France, but expresses none of that anguish.
 
Frances and Jenny have performed together widely since they met when invited to play at a charity concert.  The audience at the inaugural Harp on Wight Festival might remember their concert of Victorian music; a CD of this repertoire is due for imminent release.
Frances and James  have played together for many years in the Tagore String Trio so it was natural to combine to explore the exciting harp trio repertoire.
Jenny decided, while at school, that music was not a suitable career and won a place to read Architecture at Cambridge.  As a student she had some wonderful musical experiences, including performing the War Requiem in King’s College Chapel in the chamber orchestra with by David Hill, appearing at the Aldeburgh Festival in a chamber opera by Matthew Best, and at the Edinburgh Fringe in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. 
Music triumphed over architecture again in the nineties when the construction industry was decimated and Jenny now makes music her career.  Highlights have come from surprising directions; working for the Royal Shakespeare Company for Richard Jones’  Midsummer Night’s Dream, with music by Jonathan Dove, and much later the first public performance of Dove’s opera Seven Angels for two voices and harp; working with composer Ed Lambert; working with Andrew Parrott to record Berlioz’ trio from the Childhood of Christ; being part of the team for Stowe Opera’s magical production of Rusalka; emotional performances of Peter Grimes with Richard Hickox at Endellion.
Chamber music has always been a most rewarding activity and Jenny also plays flute/viola/harp trios with Trio Sospiroso and harp duets with Arcangeli.  Jenny delights in tracking down new repertoire and encouraging composers to write adventurously for her instrument.  Recent performances include Caplet’s Conte Fantastique and Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp.
Frances studied as a child with Albert Sammons and later at the RCM with Alan Loveday, winning prizes including the Tagore Gold Medal, and was a prizewinner in the Carl Flesch and BBC Violin Competitions.  She has appeared as a soloist at the BBC Proms on several occasions.  Professor at the Royal College of Music for many years, Frances is an inspirational teacher and chamber music player.
Frances’s varied discography ranges from the famous recording of Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge, with the Music Group of London, to recent releases of chamber music by Gordon Jacob and trios by Schubert, Hummel, Dohnanyi and Kodaly, quartets by James Friskin, with the Rasumovsky Quartet and oboe quartets with Sarah Francis and the Tagore String Trio.
James has performed all over the world in chamber groups including the Auriol and Bingham quartets, and the Tagore string trio. He has also performed unaccompanied Bach and Beethoven sonatas in Japan and Australia as well as in the UK.  James has been teaching cello and chamber music at RCM Junior department since September 1986, and his ex-students from JD include the current cellist in the Allegri String Quartet, cellists in all areas of the profession, and students at all the major UK conservatoires. James is director of the Aboyne Cello Festival and coaches on many chamber music courses.

Friday 7th October 2016

Bill Taylor
Bill Taylor is a specialist in the performance of ancient harp music from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and is one of very few players investigating these repertoires on medieval gut-strung harps, wire-strung clarsachs and Renaissance harps with buzzing bray pins.  He is one of the foremost interpreters of music in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, containing the earliest harp music from Europe.  Bill performs and teaches in the Scottish Highlands and works with Ardival Harps in Strathpeffer.  He has made over 30 CDs as a soloist and with several ensembles, including Graindelavoix, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien and Quadrivium.  As a teacher, he is frequently invited to lead workshops in the UK, Europe and the USA, including regular appearances at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. 

Bill will perform a concert of historical, traditional and modern Scottish music, using two medieval harps – one strung with gut, the other with brass wire. The programme includes medieval sacred polyphony and plainsong; Renaissance part-songs and dance tunes; early pibrochs from the time before bagpipes were playing them; 18th-century airs; variation sets originally heard on fiddle and pipes; and some contemporary tunes on the wire-strung clarsach, including one written especially for him. 
BILL TAYLOR IS SPONSORED BY THE CLARSACH SOCIETY

Saturday 8th October 2016

Performance Platform

AFTERNOON CONCERT: PERFORMANCE PLATFORM
Harp performance by winners of the Camac Harp Competition at the North London Festival 2016.
We are delighted, in partnership with the UK Harp Association, to offer another performance
opportunity to winners of the Camac Competition at the North London Festival 2016. An opportunity
to see two exceptional young international harpists:
Richard Allen (Northern Ireland) 1st Prize, and Jia Peng (China), Joint 2nd Prize with Oliver
Wasse. Unfortunately Oliver is unable to join us.

The Harp Studio have kindly supplied a Salvi harp for the Camac Competition winners concert.
JIA PENG
Jia Peng was born in Beijing, China. Jia has been passionate about the harp from a young age. She started  her  harp lessons with Peixue Gan who was the former principle harpist with China National Symphony. Then, Jia studied with professor Jason Chang at Music Middle School affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music from 2006 till 2014, graduated with top marks.  In 2014, she is continuing her studying in Royal Academy of Music with Professor Catherine White as a postgraduate  student .She will continue her studying in Academy next year.
Jia has a lot of experiences and won many prizes in various competitions.She got the 2nd prize in Camac Harp Competition in 2016. She was the winner of  the  Lyon Healy  Harp Competition 2014 in Shanghai. She won the first prize in  2nd Hong Kong harp competition in April 2013. Jia won herself the third place at 2nd Saint-Petersburg International Competition “Golden Harp” in Russia  and  the third prize in the 22nd Nippon Harp Competition in Japan in 2010.
As a soloist, Jia had several recitals in Westbury, Cheltenham,Shanghai, Chengdu. Her recital at Park House got a huge success.She just got an performance opportunity at Harp on Wight Festival on 8th October.Jia has performed  Debussy “Dances” with Zhejing Symphony Orchestra and Xian Grand theater Orchestra in 2012.  She  performed at the opening concert at Beijing International Harp Festival as special guest harpist in 2012. Jia performed Dittersdorf  Harp Concerto with school orchestra In 2008. At 11th World Harp Conference, Jia was chosen to take part in Marie-Pierre Langlamet’s master class. She performed on "Focus on Youth" in Amsterdam at The 10th World Harp Conference.  Jia got the  Entrance Scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music,2014 and 2016.
JIA PENG IS SUPPORTED BY UK HARP ASSOCIATION
RICHARD ALLEN
Richard was born in 1993 in Belfast, Northern Ireland and is currently studying with Letizia Belmondo at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in Switzerland having previously studied with Gabriella Dall’Olio at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance since 2011. He has performed solo and chamber works in recitals in the UK and abroad in venues such as L’église de la Madeleine, Paris, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and the Teatro della Residenza in Monza, Italy. He was the 2011 winner of the Catherine Judge Memorial Award soloist competition, the John Marson Prize winner 2013, and the First Prize winner of the North London Festival Camac Competition 2016. Richard is generously supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Nicholas Berwin Charitable Trust

Ismael Ledesma
Ismael was born in Lambare, a town just outside Assuncion, the capital of Paraguay. Born into a family of musicians (his father was a harpist and his mother a singer/guitarist), it is not surprising that Ismael was playing the harp by the age of five. Although he took some lessons with his father and other famous harpists, Ismael is practically self-taught, and has developed a very personal style which is both modern and original.
In 1981 he was invited to France by his uncle Kike Lucena. In Paris he immersed himself into the Latin music scene where he was able to gain experience and adopted a strict discipline which characterizes his professional career.
He performs regularly in Paraguay and all over the world.
The government of Paraguay named him Ambassador of Culture and Tourism, and this year he is one of five Paraguayans selected to feature on a Paraguayan postage stamp.

More details can be found on his website at

Sunday 9th October 2016

Heather Yule

JACK AND THE LOST HARPS 
Join Heather Yule, spellbinding storyteller and harper, on a storywalk for the whole family. Through story, riddles and rhymes we will travel with Jack as he seeks his fortune and unlocks the mystery of the kingdom that has lost its music. Participants must solve the puzzles to find the lost magical harps and help Jack bring music back to the land. The storywalk ends with a come-and-try session where you will have the chance to try the harps and learn a simple tune. This is an event full of fun and entertainment!
Heather Yule grew up surrounded by storytelling, literature, theatre and music. She started telling stories at house ceilidhs from a very young age and when she was eight years old her mother, Dr Barbara McDermitt, began her PhD on folk narrative at the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. Over the following years Heather was very fortunate to be taken by her mother on numerous recording trips. These included visiting the Gaelic tradition bearer Nan MacKinnon on the island of Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides; the master storytellers from the Scottish Traveller tradition, such as Stanley Robertson and Betsy Whyte; and the Appalachian storyteller Ray Hicks in the USA.
At the age of eight Heather heard the clarsach (Scottish harp) for the very first time at the Girvan Fok Festival, played by Katie Harrigan, and was instantly smitten. She had to wait though until she was twelve for her father, John Yule, to start making harps professionally before she could take her first beginner lesson at the Edinburgh Harp Festival with Savourna Stevenson. Heather continued to study the Scottish harp with Savourna Stevenson and Isobel Mieras before taking up the classical harp initially with Sanchia Pielou in Glasgow and then over the years studying from such eminent harp tutors as Eira Lynn Jones, Elunid Pierce and the American harpist Gail Barber.
After she gained a BMus in pedal harp performance Heather returned to Scotland to concentrate on teaching the Scottish harp and developing her own unique way of combining traditional storytelling with the music of the harp. Heather is a long time member of the Scottish Storytelling Forum and actively participates in the school programmes and festival events run by the Scottish Storytelling Centre. She has also travelled all over Scotland and abroad, including Iceland, Norway, Poland and North America performing, teaching and leading workshops.

Cheyenne Brown
Cheyenne Brown is from Alaska, but has been based in Scotland for the past thirteen years where she has studied the Scottish harp both from a performance and a research perspective, and she works to perform and teach the Scottish harp both locally and abroad.
Cheyenne gained an Honours Degree in Scottish Music from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2006 where she had a full scholarship from the associated board of Music. In November 2009 she was awarded an MSc in Scottish Ethnology from the University of Edinburgh. This research-based Masters degree allowed her to carry out fieldwork in areas of the harp never studied before. She researched the development in the construction of the Scottish harp since it’s revival in the 1930’s through to todays modern harp builders.
Cheyenne is in high demand as a much-respected harp teacher on both sides of the Atlantic. She regularly travels to teach and in Germany, and in northern Europe. In Scotland she maintains a full rota of private students, as well as teaching for the Edinburgh Harp Festival and Clarsach Society events. She has re-founded and is a past convenor of the Glasgow Branch of the Clarsach Society, and is involved in running monthly harp workshops in Glasgow.
A characteristically free and creative performer, Cheyenne has released a diverse range of CD’s in recent years, consisting of solo, duo and trio releases, in addition to touring the work all round the world. Full details of these can be found on her website at www.cheyenneharp.com
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CHEYENNE BROWN IS SPONSORED BY PILGRIM HARPS

Mike Parker

Monday 10th October 2016

GROWING HARP ISLAND PROJECT
Is a harpist and musicologist who originally studied instrument building at the London college of Furniture, building and restoring 'early' and folk harps.
He is the only Englishman to have been awarded the Olamh Sui (Doctorate) by the Institute of Traditional Celtic Music, awarded for his work relating to the historic usage of the harp in the Celtic nations. He researches all aspects of the historical harp and modern folk music and is head of Strings in the Junior Department of  the London College of Music and Media (Thames Valley University).Mike co-ordinated the Single Action Harp Symposium in 2004 and he is the President of the Historical Harp Society.

The Dustbin Corner Ceilidh Band
Dance and sing to the Festival Finale with the Dustbin Corner Ceilidh Band: Karen Tweed, Mark Hickman and Ian Watterson.
Venue: RYDE METHODIST CHURCH, Garfield Road, Ryde PO33 2PT 

DCCB consists of Ian Watterson (caller), Karen Tweed (accordion) and Mark Hickman (guitar and vocals).
Two thirds of this vibrant and lively musical conversation are from the island, while Karen takes an occasional hop, skip and a jump to help get feet tapping, village hall floors bouncing and all ages having great fun, exploring the myriad of dances Ian can teach in minutes (even to those feeling they have two left feet!) Mark’s driving accompaniment and beautiful self penned songs of island life complete a smashing event for everyone to enjoy! Expect a lot of laughter, dancing and great music!

13th November 2016

Paraguayan harpists Sixto and Juanjo Corbalan

Harp on Wight and Vaguely Sunny are proud to present – direct from Paraguay – harpists Sixto and Juanjo Corbalan.
A real treat following on from Harp on Wight 2016, welcoming more world-class musicians to the Isle of Wight.