The Newsletter of The Harp Society of Western Australia Inc. May 2015

Committee Members President Vice PresidentTreasurer Secretary Committee

Fred Brewer Ella Scott Fred Brewer Catherine Ashley Jane McCabe Neil Macdonald Helen Punch

Society Contact Details Email Web Phone Post

[email protected] www.harpsocietywa.org.au 0407 988 552 PO Box 2229, Carlisle North, WA, 6101

March Gathering Neil Macdonald Sunday afternoon, 8th March, saw twenty harps and over thirty supporters for the Harps Gathering at the spacious, well-appointed Cockburn Community Hall at Coogee. Fred as MC and Bronwyn led the harpists for an absorbing afternoon where ensemble playing and workshopping was interspersed with performances by the Echoing Harps group, the Ethereal Strings group, duets and solos, including a final, feature solo from Bronwyn, whom we thank for giving us her time and expertise. Catherine, who ably led us last time, was busy selling harp music, CDs etc, as our new, very local supplier. After the performances, everyone enjoyed afternoon tea and a good chat.

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Harpist Profile Over ANZAC weekend harpists in WA were extremely lucky to participate in workshops by acclaimed Melbourne harpist Mary Doumany at Harp Camp. Mary also presented two concerts in Perth, one featuring the works of Cole Porter and other jazz standards for harp, bass and voice at the Ellington, and a concert featuring two experimental compositions of her own, “Reply to Frankenstein” and “Excitation, Stillness, Flow” at Spectrum Project Space. This first harpist profile for Harp West takes a look at the vast background and experience of this amazing musician. One of the most original voices in the Australian arts community, Mary Doumany is a cross-arts practitioner renowned as a composer, harpist and singer, and is rapidly earning a reputation as a creator of unique and innovative works that encompass music, text and visuals. Based in Victoria, Mary performs throughout Australia and regularly tours internationally, with her live performances and compositions embracing the folk, jazz, rock and classical genres. Mary majored in harp under Una Morgan, and later undertook private lessons with Marisa Robles in London. She studied composition with Alan Lane and voice with Margaret Nixon. Playing both lever and pedal harps, Mary has performed with the Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. She made her solo debut for ABC Radio with Debussy’s Danses Sacree et Profane at age twenty, and has since performed widely as a recitalist, festival guest, and chamber ensemble musician, including solo performances at the City of London Festival 2005 and Artcore (Paris). As a recording artist, Mary has performed on soundtracks for Australian and international films, television series, and advertising campaigns, and her harp recordings can be heard in films including Shine, The Last Days of Chez Nous, Peaches, Metalskin, The Truman Show, MacBeth and Caterpillar Wish. Mary has received invitations to play and sing on recordings and in live performances of many popular artists over the years, including Grace Knight, Ross Wilson, Margaret Urlich, and James Morrison. After writing music for student theatre productions, and a short film shown on ABC TV, Mary later went on to form a song-writing partnership with producer and bassist Jeremy Alsop. Writing and performing together as ‘The Lovers’, the duo were signed to the BMG Gotham label and financed by popular Australian singer John Farnham, and his business partner Ross Fraser. Described by Barry Humphries as "mellifluous and as intimate as aromatherapy between consenting adults", ‘The Lovers’ released two albums, Embrace and Black Orchid, enjoyed chart success, and were nominated for five ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) awards. Since locating to Melbourne from Queensland in the 1990’s, Mary has collaborated with a who’s who of the Victorian Jazz scene. One of her most popular solo shows features the songs of Porter, with atypical harp accompaniment. She has also embraced opportunities to compose for music theatre productions and private commissions including a 1997 commission by Rupert Murdoch to write and perform a song for the Farewell to Ken Cowley concert. Her songs have been covered by various artists over the years, including Grace Knight, Christine Sullivan , Phoebe Snow and Annalisa Kerrigan, some of which can be heard on recent releases through ABC Classics. These include the 2009 release Our Land in Harmony; For Victorian Bushfire Relief, and Encore! The World’s Greatest Voices. In 2003, with funding provided by the Australia Council, Mary wrote and recorded an album of original solo harp compositions, Elemental: impressions of the natural world. Described by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s principal harpist as “incredibly creative and original harp writing”, Mary toured the album internationally with the support of Arts Victoria. Mary has recently returned from a solo tour of Japan, performing on koto, harp and voice. She has toured Japan and Europe with James Hullicks’ Bolt Ensemble, performing at The Forge and Café Oto in London, Edinburgh Festival 2014 and WWW, Superdeluxe in Tokyo.

Harp Camp 2015 On ANZAC weekend, 14 harpists met at Eaton, on the banks of the Collie River for a weekend of harp! The harpists experienced workshops, rehearsals and informative sessions by Melbourne harpist Mary Doumany, as well as WA locals Helen Punch, Catherine Ashley and Fred Brewer. Everyone who attended the camp was kept well fed by harp mums Daisy and Daniella, led by Jane McCabe. Here are a few thoughts from some of the camp attendees: During the long weekend I had the opporutnity to attend the first harp camp in WA. The camp was an exciting new experience for me. It was very informative; we had a variety of different people who bestowed their knowledge on us. It was great to mix with students of various ages and levels. At the ensemble we had a chance to learn some beautiful new pieces. My favourite part of the camp was the masterclass, where one would have a lesson with Miss Mary Doumany and everyone else would observe. It was a little intimidating at the beginning, but very rewarding. I hope that this was the first of many camps. By Jill Bretto We drove down to Eaton and as we were early we got to help set up. Liam and I made up signs to make it easy for everyone to find where their dorms were. As people started to arrive I started to get really excited. After unpacking our bags we all went into the main room and Catherine gave us all the information we needed to stay safe and to have fun. Then Catherine introduced Helen who talked to all of us about the harp’s history. We had lots of yummy food, we made an awesome mattress fort, we went for walks down to the river and we saw a beautiful sunset, we watched a movie and got to stay up really really late. We played a lot of new pieces and we learnt how to make lots of awesome noises and ways to play the harp with Mary and blue tack of course. Harp camp was awesome and we thank Catherine for organizing such a fantastic weekend and Mary for coming from Melbourne to spend the weekend with us. I hope we see more kids there next year so we can make a whole heap of new friends. By Alana Levingston (age 11)

Call out for Harp Society Sub-Committee Members

Harp Teacher Listings

The Harp Society is currently managed by five volunteers, who are all very busy people! In order for the Society to continue to provide services to its members, more people are needed to help out on the committee. We meet around 4 times a year, and some members have Skyped in if they can’t travel to the meetings. As we are so new, it would be such a shame if the Society were to fold (such as the Victorian Harp Society did) due to a lack of volunteers.

Catherine Ashley Dianella [email protected] Teaches lever and pedal harp, beginners to advanced players, all ages.

Jane McCabe Belmont area. 0404081179 As well as the office-bearing positions of President, Teaches beginner lever harp and piano. Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary, the Society are currently 8 years and up. seeking people to join the following sub-committees: Helen Punch Gathering Sub-Committee South West (Binningup) Harp Camp Sub-Committee 97202871 or 0427217664 Youth Harp Festival Sub-Committee Teaches lever/celtic and pedal harp. Christmas Caroling Sub-Committee Beginner to intermediate. South West Sub-Committee www.harpsounds.com Fundraising Sub-Committee Facebook: harpsounds As the saying goes, many hands make light work! And the more Bronwyn Wallis harp hands we can get on the deck, the more opportunities we can Bayswater bring to harpists in WA! 0417 939 095 [email protected] Teaches beginner to advanced lever & Benefits of Being a Harp Society Member pedal harp and theory. Harp Society membership runs from August for a period of 12 months and starts from $30 for the year. Benefits of membership include: * Being a part of the growing community of harpists in WA * Be the first to know about any harp events, workshops or concerts * Newsletter * Free listings/advertising in the newsletter for teachers, performers, harp makers and other harp businesses * Discounted harpist rate at Gatherings - $5 member harpists, $10 non-member harpists, $2 spectators * Discounted harpist rates at Harp Camp * Discounted entry rate for Solo Harp sections in the WA Youth Harp Festival -$12 members, $15 non-members * 5% off all sheet music and CDs from the “WA Harp Centre” when spending over $100 in one transaction. * AGM voting rights August Gathering The next Harp Society Gathering is on August 16th. If you have any suggestions of new or old repertoire for the group to play please email [email protected].

Harp Bench Brandden Lassells of “Harps and Harps” answers questions you may have pertaining to the making, maintenance or repair of harps. Recently we have been asked to help solve a buzzing problem long distance, so I will discuss this. Buzzes in a harp can be very frustrating and elusive to locate even when we have the harp in our workshop. But I will cover a number of possible sources of buzzes in both pedal and lever or folk harps. Buzzes generally fall into two categories. The first is a string buzz where the string is actually hitting something when struck. These are usually easy to solve once you know where to look. A common instance is untrimmed string ends. This is where either at the back of the soundboard a long tail was left from the knot and it is vibrating against the soundboard, or likewise excess string at the tuning peg can also vibrate against the neck. Make sure that any string tails are trimmed. Also on metal wound strings there is a metal washer at the ball end and if this is not seated fully can vibrate causing a buzz. If this is suspected push the string end with your finger while plucking the string to see if the buzz stops. On a pedal harp the place to look if it is the string etc itself causing the buzz is that discs are correctly regulated. If the disc pins are too close to the string in the open position or not gripping the string completely when engaged either of these situations can be a source of a buzz.On lever harps where it is the string itself is causing the buzz, check the string ends and then determine if the buzz stops when engaging the lever. If so this usually means that the bridge pin needs to move in or out to move the string into the centre of the lever opening when in the open position. Or something maybe loose on the lever, try pushing or holding the lever with your finger while plucking the string. The other more challenging category is a sympathetic buzz. The whole harp and possibly an object near by can vibrate when a string is set in vibration by playing it. If there is a loose connection somewhere that vibrates in sympathy with a particular note or notes the buzz is created.For any type of harp the first and easiest thing to do is to try the harp in another room. Although this may sound too simple it has sometimes been the solution. What is happing is that something in the room near the harp is vibrating sympathetically with the harp. Sympathetic vibrations can easily send you on the wrong track as it is not always the string itself being played or even close to it that is buzzing but simply that it has set something else in motion. If two parts anywhere on the harp are touching and do not have a tight connection, playing a certain string can result in a buzz as those two parts vibrate in sympathy with the vibration frequency of the string. Although you may hear a buzz when you play a certain string it may not be anything that that particular string is touching. What you need to do is to try holding onto or pushing on various parts of the harp while playing the offending string. What you are trying to isolate is a loose part that when held securely or damped causes the buzz to stop. Once you have successfully played detective it is usually straight forward to then eliminate the cause of the buzz. Some things that have been known to create a buzz are any loose bolt or screw especially on the feet or base, levers on a folk harp, the soundboard itself, any internal braces that may have come loose, and if a pickup is installed, any wire that is touching the harp and the pickup jack which usually has a an outer cap and an inner cover or housing which can vibrate loose. On pedal harps it is possible that two of the chains in the action are touching or have worn rivets. Even the pedal rods, pedal caps and any of the many screws on the action plates can be the culprit. Dusty Strings has a very useful interactive guide to buzzing which is mostly for lever harps and includes some good photos of lever problems.mSee: http://manufacturing.dustystrings.com/support/harps/buzzing-harpstrings/ . In conclusion not only can buzzes be extremely difficult to pinpoint and there is a good chance that it is not coming from where you think it is.

WA Youth Harp Festival The third annual WA Youth Harp Festival will take place on Saturday 13th June at 9.30am in Carlisle. The Festival is a fantastic opportunity for young harpists to perform in front of an adjudicator (WASO harpist Sarah Bowman), gain some feedback and hear many of their peers perform as well. Entry forms are now out and must be returned before 29th May. Please contact Jane on [email protected] with any further questions.

Concerts Coming Up * Philharmonic South West Orchestra (harpist Helen Punch) - 23rd May. Aravina Estate, Yallingup. “A Gala Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Dinner and Ball. * WASO (harpists Sarah Bowman & Bronwyn Wallis) - 5th & 6th June. Perth Concert Hall. “Pictures at an Exhibition” - 12th & 13th June. Perth Exhibition Centre. “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” - 19th & 20th June. Perth Concert Hall. “Carmina Burana” - 27th June. Perth Concert Hall. “The Rusty Orchestra” * Jewels Women’s Afternoon - 7th June, 2.30pm. Mount Hawthorn Baptist Church. Recitals by Melissa Fitzgerald (guitar) and Catherine Ashley (harp). * Honours Recital “Experimental Harping” - 15th June. WAAPA, Mount Lawley. Catherine Ashley (harp) and guest artist Therese Lowdin (flute)

Harps for Sale Salvi Arion - $22,150 47 String, new style extended soundboard.. Natural Maple Finish. 1 year old. Comes with dust cover, padded travel case and harp trolley. Contact Fred Brewer on 94193558

Salvi Daphne - $9,800 40 String. Contact Fred Brewer on 94193558

Helen Punch is the Australian agent for Salvi Harps. For more information on Salvi Harps please contact Helen on 97202871 or 0427217664.

Have a harp or harp related product for sale? If you are a member you can advertise in the newsletter and on our Facebook page!

The Harp Society has been approached to arrange a group of harpists to perform on Saturday 24th October for the Riverlands Montessori School Medieval Fair. Harpists will need to dress in appropriate period costume and play for approximately 20-30 minutes as an ensemble at some point during the day (scheduling is still taking place). Please contact [email protected] ASAP if you would be interested in participating in this fun event!