2012 Instructors

- Patti Tillotson, Harpswell, Maine

All Students are expected to bring their own instrument.

The Scottish Harp classes will focus on:
• Basic harp technique for beginners and intermediates.
• Repertoire at all levels, including tunes for competition sets.
• Scottish style, including ornaments, lilt, and dance types.

The nylon/gut harp classes will study Scottish dance music, airs, and songs, focusing on ornamentation, Scottish style, accompaniment, and learning by ear. Afternoons will include lectures, practice time, and playing in sessions. Classes will be available for beginners who have played for a few months, intermediates, and advanced players.

 

Ann Heymann leads the class for wire strung and historical harps (bray harps welcome) and Charlie Heymann leads an afternoon "band class" for all instruments.

 

NEW An incredible option to assemble, finish and string your own 27 string wire harp (assisted by Charlie) while learning from Ann, a premiere Gaelic harper. Please contact Ann for details: annheymann@gmail.com

 

Evening jam sessions offer students the chance to develop accompaniment patterns and learn more tunes.

Seumas Gagne has been playing the music of the Highland and Irish Gaels on the Celtic harp for more than thirty years. His love of the music led him deeper into the world of the Gael until learning the Gaelic language became the natural next step. He began studying with Richard Hill and helped found Slighe nan Gaidheal (say: SLEE-uh nun GAY-ull), Washington’s Gaelic language and cultural society.
Seumas was one of the founding members of the band Wicked Celts. Although no longer working together, their recording, Prophecy and Blessing continues to be in demand.
In 1997 Seumas and five friends from Slighe nan Gaidheal journeyed to the Royal Scottish National Mòd in Inverness, where he won the Elspeth Hyllestad Trophy for solo clàrsach performance. He is the only American to have won this award. In 2001, he returned to the Mòd in Scotland with four friends and won the first-ever waulking song competition.
Current projects include Seirm (say: SHARE-um), the Gaelic choir and band of Slighe nan Gaidheal, The Alys & Seumas Show, a two-harp two-voice Canadian-American collaboration with Vancouver harper, Alys Howe and producing his first solo CD, Baile Ard, Mo Rùn.

 

Ann Heymann is the premier performer and teacher of wire-strung harp and a SHSA Distinguished Judge. Through study of surviving documents, Ann has recreated techniques once used by Gaelic harpers in Ireland and Scotland, and uses them to enhance the expression of both traditional and historical repertoire. Ann has toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia, with appearances at such notable venues as the Edinburgh Harp Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. An engaging lecturer and author of the instrument's first instructional, Secrets of the Gaelic Harp, Ann's more recent Coupled Hands for Harpers features progressive arrangements that introduce an exciting idiomatic approach to harp playing. Both her new CD release Cruit go nÓr * Harp of Gold and the previous Queen of Harps have been labeled as "definitive" cláirseach recordings. In addition to recording and performing with her husband Charlie, Ann has collaborated with Scottish harper Alison Kinnaird, Highland pipers Alan MacDonald and Barnaby Brown, and Gaelic singer's Alasdair Codona and Margaret Stewart.

 

Charlie Heymann’s experience in Irish music began at Irish céilís and parties in the Chicago area during the early 1970’s, and in 1974 Charlie was asked to join a touring Irish group, The Dayhills Irish Band. Charlie married in 1976 and his wife Ann joined the group in 1978. In 1979 Charlie and Ann left The Dayhills to perform as a duo under the name Clairseach. This new role brought him more into the spotlight, not only accompanying Ann’s featured harp playing, but his voice now became the foundation of their oral poetry, ballads, recitations, and stories. Subsequent travels with Ann have brought the two of them to 38 of the 50 states, much of western Europe, Australia and Taiwan. Charlie has studied Irish button accordion under Paddy O’Brien of Co. Offaly and Gaelic song interpretation with Daithi Sproule from Co. Derry. Recent stages upon which Charlie has appeared include the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland; the Lorient Interceltic Festival in France; the National Folk Festival in Australia; the Irish World Music Center, Bank of Ireland Arts Centre and National University of Ireland at Galway in Ireland; and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

 

Jen McGovern Narkevicius teaches and performs traditional music on the harp.  She lives outside Washington, DC and came to the harp from piano and boisterous singing.  Fortunately, the harp won.   Jen also likes having music in the world where it is created and so acts as a music guide sharing Scotland and the beauty and splendor of the Highlands and Islands through its tunes, lore, and history with harp players of all levels.  While the harp is her first love, Jen is an internationally recognized expert in ergonomics and human performance and is trained in education of the gifted and talented.  She merges the two parts of her world through consulting and teaching workshops, lectures, and private lessons to help musicians improve their performance on or off stage by understanding how their bodies and minds work.  She also teaches at HarpCamp in SE Pennsylvania.  Currently Vice-President and Competition Committee Chair of the Scottish Harp Society of America (SHSA), Jen is a credentialed SHSA judge.  She has been privileged to play for the First Secretary of Scottish Affairs, American Red Cross at Walter Reed Army Hospital outpatient facility, Royal Air Force Base Kinloss Officers Club, Ballendalloch and Dalgety Castles, and as a guest performer for Trinity Cathedral’s HarpFest.  She blogs weekly on topics that range from touring Scotland with a harp to fulfilling your harper promise on jenthehaper.blogspot.com. 

 

Sue Richards is a traditional musician and collector of tunes. She has played the harp since childhood, and found it to be the perfect instrument for her passion. To this end, she has won the Scottish Harp Society of America (SHSA) championship four times, studied and taught in Scotland and recorded with many friends, a natural outgrowth of a good session. She is a SHSA Distinguished Judge. Sue has performed at Celtic Connections and the Edinburgh International Harp Festival in Scotland, and toured Norway and Sweden with the “Harpa” ensemble. She has played for Presidents Clinton and Bush, Queen Elizabeth of England, and sat in with the Chieftains Irish band. Sue’s main gig is touring with Ensemble Galilei, a group of five women performing Celtic, early, and original music. As a member of EG she has written music and performed in two multi-media shows, “A Universe of Dreams”, and “First Person: Letters from the Edge of the World”, the latter sponsored by the National Geographic Society. She also performs with Sharon Knowles as “HEN” harp duo. www.suerichards.net. Ensemble Galilei: www.egmusic.com.