harpy christmas!

December was crazy for the hubby and I!  He had intense finals, projects, papers, and presentations, and I had a bajillion harp events, concerts, gigs, and church performances.  Dustin survived another semester of business school with all A's and one B!!  And I survived another harp Christmas season.  Though it was a lot of work learning new music, having 6am rehearsals, and moving the harp everywhere in the snow, we both loved the spirit of Christmas that we felt in our hearts because of the music.  Music truly is powerful and can lift hearts like nothing else.  I am so grateful for my talent and the many opportunities and blessings it brings to both mine and Dustin's lives.

holiday diamond party!  i was hoping i might get paid with diamonds but sadly no ;)

harp & bells christmas concert.  

my students played with 4 other teacher's students totaling 40 harps on stage!

 seven harps! 

we accompanied the salt lake vocal artists on their two christmas concerts

 me and my boss/harp teacher/friend/mentor/wardie ShruDe

 a few of us accompanied the salt lake choral artists again at their assembly hall performances

my best harp mover husband 

imagine dragons

A few weeks ago we got to see Imagine Dragons in concert!  They are one of our favorite bands - Dustin and I both LOVE every track on their album.  I'm just waiting for them to release another album! Hopefully soon?  The concert was this year's Vivint end of year party so the whole arena was filled with Vivint people!  It was such a fun concert and Imagine Dragons were amazing live!  So much energy and crazy drum solos thrown in everywhere.  Thanks Vivint!

with our best Vivint friends TJ and Emily

a night at the symphony

On Saturday I performed with the Salt Lake Symphony at Libby Gardner Hall.  I played first harp on the Rumanian Rhapsody by Enesco and the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra.  I had played the Bartok before but   I had to combine both of the difficult harp parts and I was a freshman and the conductor was a jerk and made me cry it wasn't the greatest experience.

The performance on Saturday was fantastic.  I get such a rush from being on stage performing but I also feel confident in my playing and just so intensely focused in the moment.  While I do enjoy performing by myself, there's something surreal about being part of an ensemble/symphony etc.  Even the parts when I'm not playing, I love just sitting there and soaking it all in.  And it's the best feeling afterwards - when you know you played your best!  Here's a shout out to my parents and my handsome husband who are my biggest supporters!  After the concert we went and got frosties. :)

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent. - Victor Hugo

les miserables

We saw Les Miserables in theaters a few weeks ago and the music has been playing in my head ever since!  I have always loved the music and I love love loved the movie.  Definitely my favorite movie of 2012.  I thought the actors all did a brilliant job of portraying the raw and stirring emotion that the story tells and the music evokes.  

If you haven't seen it, and aren't familiar with the musical, here's a disclosure: Mr. Harper saw it with me, and he didn't know beforehand that the whole thing is music - hardly any dialogue, which is what I love about it!  But it was a little exhausting for him.  He said that "it felt like every song was the climax of the movie."  Which is kind of true, but seriously that is what makes it so amazing!

FYI all of the vocals were recorded live on set, with just a live piano accompaniment playing in their ear.  And Anne Hathaway's hair was cut live on set when they were doing "I Dreamed a Dream."  I think she should win an academy award just for that performance.  Also, you might not have noticed but there was a ton of harp in the soundtrack!  On about half of the songs, it was the vocalist, and then just harp accompanying them.  The soundtrack was recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studio in London, and Skaila Kanga was the harpist.  She has done harp on lots of major movies including:  all of the Harry Potter's, Skyfall, The Hobbit, etc.

I have a harp arrangement of "On My Own" that I always play at the Grand America, but the other day I picked up a book of Les Mis piano arrangements, which actually transfer nicely to the harp.  So excited to play all of them at the Grand this week!

do we perceive beauty?

I came across this on my friend Julia's blog and had to share it.  Thinking about all the beauty in this world, that I might just be passing by...

"A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?" By: Josh Nonnenmoc. ART