D.C. Festival of Harps, December 30th, 2007
The first annual D.C. Festival of Harps was held on December 30th, 2007 at the Mormon Temple Visitors Center in Kensington, MD. Volunteer harpists from the W.A.F.H.S. and the D.C. Chapter of the American Harp Society participated. In all there were 24 harps on stage and harpists came from North of Baltimore all the way down to Richmond Virginia. The concept was to organize an event that would facilitate teachers of W.A.F.H.S. and the D.C./A.H.S. playing together with their students in a formal performance. I was so pleased with the support that I received. As the harps began arriving on performance day, each harpist was asked to sign in and received a gift bag full of goodies. There were many sponsors for the event who had donated items to be included in the bags. In fact, the gift bags themselves were a donation from Sylvia Woods. Many thanks to W.A.F.H.S and the Virginia Harp Center for their generous monetary assistance, Lyon &Healy for the ‘Harp Cubes’, the D.C./AHS chapter for assistance with the food, and Jan Jennings for her note cards and her arrangement of Greensleeves which will be used in next year’s concert.
The conductor for the group was Ryan Pick from Occoquan, VA. Ryan was a lot of fun and a great asset, as he was able to pull the group together for a tremendous performance. We were also blessed to have Allison Devereaux (our cellist) and Catherine Davies (our flautist) perform with us. Their musical abilities added grace and depth to the performance. The performance consisted of the more advanced harpists performing a few pieces followed by the entire group playing Christmas Carols and inviting the audience to sing-along. There were two performances that night and each performance was attended by over five hundred people. The group received a standing ovation which was very exhilarating. What made it most worthwhile for me was talking to my cousin Hayden. He is 7 years old and has a number of physical impairments. Hayden attended the first performance with his family and was very touched by hearing the group’s rendition of ‘Silent Night’. He was in tears when I talked to him and asked if we could play that song again. I am always amazed at the power that music has to bring joy into the lives of others. Thanks again to all who helped in any way to make this event a success. I know that there were many volunteers who saw a need and stepped up to help out. I hope to see everyone again plus many more harpists at next year’s 2nd Annual Festival of Harps.
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D.C. Festival of Harps 2007
