News you can use, from chapters, regions, and national! Exciting opportunities to gather via video conference continue to bring members together, and chapters are hosting meetings and national programs virtually during the year. New resources are being added regularly to the AHS and AHJ YouTube channels, and plans are in place to offer two dynamic national events in June of 2021: the rescheduled National Conference and the 2021 National Competition finals. Build your community within the AHS and join us as we learn about and serve the harp!
Nominations for new AHS Board members are now open online through November 30th. If you are interested in serving, or you know a colleague who might be well-suited to Board service, please submit your nomination(s) during November. Cycle through the badges on the right side to find "Call for Nominations". You may also download a paper nomination form.
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Chapter News
The Connecticut Chapter is currently gathering news for their December newsletter. Please send any type of information you would like to share - performances, music, recordings, favorite music items you have found during quarantine, harp items for sale, etc and send it to Wendy Kerner: wklharp@gmail.com
The Connecticut Chapter will hold an online performance December 20th at 4:00 - all levels and ages welcome. The music can be holiday music or anything you like. One piece per student, please. Contact Wendy Kerner at wklharp@gmail.com with your details.
The Connecticut Chapter is planning to host online Music Education Auditions in February and March. More details coming soon.
Discussion is under way for a guest performer and master class later this Spring or in the Fall of 2021.
Member News
Wendy Kerner is enjoying teaching lots of online lessons, and a few in person lessons. Her 2020 Elyrica program was online in August, with 20 participants of all ages and from locations around the Northeast, and Chicago and England! Wonderful guest artists/teachers Brandee Younger, Robbin Gordon-Cartier, Janelle Lake and Maeve Gilchrist helped to make the week a big success - despite a hurricane in CT that week!! Here is a compilation video of the group https://youtu.be/edmonTimJi0
Wendy Kerner is happy to have done some virtual recording for several churches recently and a YouTube recording of Marc Delmas' Priere, which seemed appropriate for the times:
Music Stand for sale - circa 1890 - great height and look for harp!
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Chapter News
The Boston Chapter will host a fall student recital on Zoom on Sunday, November 22, 2020, from 2:00pm to 3:30pm EST. For more information and to register, please contact Boston Chapter President, Molly McCaffrey (mollymccaffrey@gmail.com).
Member News
Some of the students in Lizary Rodiguez’ studio participated at the Connecticut Valley Harp Intensive online competition in July. Here’s how their competition went:
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Angelina Kekhia won 1st place at the Intermediate I division
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Cecily Zhao won 2nd place at the Intermediate II division
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Ella Brown won 3rd place at the Intermediate II division
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Cecily Zhao won the audition for the MMEA Eastern Districts and got selected to play for the 2020 All State Festival last March. She also got accepted to be a member of the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra this year.
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Chapter News
The Long Island Chapter of the American Harp Society is thrilled to present Mary Stevens, director of the Harp for Healing program. She will join us for an insightful look at playing the harp at the bedside and will discuss Therapeutic Music, the harp, and its role in our world today.
Friday, Nov 6 at 7:30pm Eastern time via our Facebook page. (The last photo is Mary Stevens.)
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Mary Stevens, Director of the Harp for Healing program.
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Metropolitan New York (MetroHarp) Chapter |
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NYC Harpist Rita Costanzi Wins the Hershey Felder Arts Prize
Rita Costanzi, a fellow NYC anthroposophist, is a harpist, pianist, soulful musician, and consummate artist who entered a worldwide competition with a video that ties the current Covid-19 situation to Beethoven’s life and legacy. The short film Moonlight in the Bronx was conceived, written, produced, directed, and performed by Rita… And she won the Hershey Felder Arts Prize!
The competition was online on July 12 where everyone voted on the winner. Out of the top 5 who had been selected by the creators of the competition… Rita WON! And received a substantial prize and an invitation to go to Italy to develop the piece f
urther. The producers of the competition want to do more with it in some way. Congratulations!
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North Eastern Mountain Chapter |
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North Eastern Mountain Chapter Board Meeting on 2/9/2020: Introduced new members of the Board, reviewed membership and discussed plans for improving Chapter visibility and ideas for general membership learning opportunities.
North Eastern Mountain Chapter Virtual Board Meeting via Zoom on 9/21/2020: Discussed our new Facebook page and the integrated use of Instagram, content ideas for a chapter newsletter, and ideas for future (virtual) guest artist programs for the general membership. Nancy Thym has been contacted for on-line presentations pending availability for 2020-2021.
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This is an UPCOMING FREE event from the Western NY Chapter:
Join the Western NY Chapter of the AHS for a Free Storytelling and Harp Event on Zoom!
Nellie Brown, our presenter, is a harpist and storyteller. She is a member of the AHS and a founding member of the Western NY Chapter, the International Society of Folk Harpers and
Craftsmen, and the Historical Harp Society.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
7:00pm to 7:30pm
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Chapter News
The Ontario Chapter has been very busy these past few months with many interesting items to share. They had their fall meeting and elections on Sunday, October 4, 2020.
Their new chapter officers for 2020-2022 will be:
Janice Lindskoog- President Natalie Hoffman - Secretary
Julie Umbrico- Vice-President Alanna Ellison – Treasurer
We will be having Music Auditions and Evaluations Jan. 17 and Feb. 7 2021, organized by Angela Schwarzkopf.
On April 17 2021 we will be holding our biennial Scholarship Adjudication and hoping for a live event if the numbers of Covid infections go down and city and government protocols permit. After the Scholarship adjudication (again permitting) we will ask the winners to perform at a Celebration of Life for Suzanna Remenyi who was a founding member of our society and President for many years. (Suzanna passed away last spring at the age of 92.) The Remenyi family have been strong supporters of our harp community for over 50 years.
We are hoping to have a masterclass presented by Sarah Davidson (harpist for the Canadian Opera Company orchestra) in the fall of 2021. Many of Sarah’s students over the years have been successful candidates at our scholarship adjudications.
Member News
We are so proud of our chapter member Angela Schwarzkopf for winning the JUNO award for classical album of the year, solo or chamber. Not only was Angela recognized for her fine work, the harp was recognized AND contemporary Canadian composition was recognized! Quite a feat!
Also, a recent performance featuring harpist, Lori Gemmell:
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Finally, the Northeast Region of the AHS hosted our first Harptoberfest, Sunday, October 25. We had a terrific event with over 70 harpists representing every chapter in our region. We had ten student performers, French harpist, Eleonore Niubo, played for us, we had a Trivia contest, breakout rooms with fun questions to talk about, and a costume contest. The winners of the trivia contest were: Rebecca Wolf, Brandee Younger, and Cecily Zhao. The winners of the costume contest were: Lizary Rodriguez, FloraBay Lemon, and Julie Ralhan. So many chapters represented! Here are some photos of the festival.
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Harptoberfest participants and their costumes! |
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Student performer, Ana Murphy |
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Our featured professional performer, Eleonore Niubo |
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The Northeastern Region is accepting videos for our new project, Harpy Holidays for Seniors! Students of all abilities from the Northeast Region of the American Harp Society are welcome to send us a video of themselves playing any holiday song: traditional, classical, or popular, celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or this cozy time of year! We will compile these into a virtual concert video to send to senior centers across our region to lift the spirits of the residents during this very difficult holiday season. Even though we cannot be there in person this year, we can still spread some "Harpiness"!
Submissions are due by Tuesday, December 1st , 2020. If you’d like to be featured, use this link to send in your video and information. https://form.jotform.com/fortuna too/harpy - holidays - for - seniors Once the video is prepared, we will send it to all the Chapter Presidents in our region. You are welcome to forward it to Senior Centers, Assisted Living Centers, Nursing Homes in your area. If you have any questions, please email NE Regional Director, Felice Pomeranz at ahsfelice@aol.com.
Thank you to everyone who submitted news for this newsletter! Hope to see you in the near future.
Be Well and Harp On!
Felice Pomeranz
Northeast Regional Director
Office 978 443 0656
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