Harp Gathering Recap
Last weekend was Folkcraft's first harp festival in a long time. It has been at least five years since we ventured outside of events that cater to (primarily) fretted instruments.
The Folkcraft display area, featuring dulcimers, kanteles, psalteries, ukuleles, and more...
At "The Harp Gathering", though, we ran into a LOT of dulcimer players. Evidently, quite a few harp players also play the dulcimer. (Or is it the other way around?)
I even ran into a dulcimer player (lever harp player) that I met last summer at Dulcimerville. Small world!
"The Harp Gathering" was hosted by Denise and Michael Grupp-Verbon, and featured some of the best harp players on the planet. Hearing Kim Robertson playing her harp couldn't help but make me think of Bing Futch playing his dulcimer. Such obviously different instruments, but such a similar stage presence...
Denise emceeing a concert
Perhaps the best part of the gathering was meeting Timothy Habinski. Timothy is the owner of Timothy Harps, which is one of the finest makers of lever harps in the world. Be sure to visit his website at TimothyHarps.ca (not .com).
Timothy with Richard
On the Saturday night concert, Timothy performed a number of harp pieces on stage (it WAS a harp festival!), but he also found the opportunity to feature an original tune which utilized one of our new concert size ukuleles.
You really need to check out the song - it has an addictive melody, and is a joy to listen to. Here's a video:
Timothy is clearly one of the greatest harp players of all time, but his talent doesn't end with the harp. It also extends to the guitar, voice, and ukulele...
Thanks to everyone at The Harp Gathering - it was a fantastic weekend, and I hope to see all of you again next year.
As always, thanks for reading!
Richard