World Harp Congress coming right up!

On Friday we fly out to Vancouver for the Eleventh World Harp Congress, thanks to my fabulous Wingate Scholarship 2010 and the generosity of my sister, Annabel. I won't lie, it's an expensive trip! However, I am excited to be going and am looking forward to hearing a variety of the best harpists from all around the World - I'm hoping that I'll see some really unique and innovative performances too - I shall report back here afterwards!

I am preparing for meeting one of my harp heroes - Judy Loman - in person, at the masterclass I am participating in. With the wonderful, inspiring composer Raymond Murray Schafer, I can't wait to play his own composition to him and get a real insight of the man behind the music. I get absorbed in the character of Ariadne as I play and perform 'The Crown of Ariadne' so I'm curious to know how he envisages the performance and what the masculine take on it may be. Basically, I just can't wait - I'm on tentahooks!

That's on Monday 25th July and on the following day, Tuesday 26th, I will be performing some jazz, classical and 'Baroque Flamenco' by Deborah Henson-Conant at the Salvi showroom which I believe will be somewhere in the beautiful Sheraton Wall Centre where the congress is being held. This concert is going to be on the new Salvi Echo electroacoustic (mark 2! - some wonderful improvements have been made since the first Echo came out!) at about 9.25am I think..trying not to think about that aspect of it!

I now own my own Salvi Echo - since about 2 weeks ago - and am still getting to know the instrument, but it's gorgeous and so 'playable' in the way that a really delicious wine is so 'drinkable' that you could engage in both activities for hours without noticing how much you had played/drunk...until you tried to stand up!

I was in London the other day, creating street music and dance with my colleague Lizzie Gough - primarily a hiphop dancer but skilled in many genres. Here's a short video of us improvising with my friend Chris Brice on drums:

I made the doll wigs and we put together the outfits as the first part of our act was clockwork dolls....but as the day went on the weather got worse and we got a bit funky to keep the rain away.

Enjoy!