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A Personal Note from Sylvia
Last month I told you about my two newest publications. I'm happy to announce that the
printed sheets of my these arrangements are now available, as well as the
PDFs.
How Does a Moment Last Forever from
Beauty and the Beast:
sheet and
PDF
La La Land Selections:
sheet and
PDF
Enjoy the music!
Sylvia
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 New Irish Harp Necklace
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I've been selling beautiful
harp jewelry from Ireland for many years. I'm very excited that they have a new, larger harp pendant.
This beautiful
silver-plated harp pendant is 1" tall and hangs from an included 18" silver-plated chain. It is now in stock, and is only $15.95!
(P.S. This jewelry is NOT part of this month's sale.)
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Harp Center on TV in 2000
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In the May newsletter, I started a new series called "Hidden Gems," featuring aspects of my
harpcenter.com website that you might not have noticed.
This month, my "hidden gem" was inspired by Gelsey Hughes, our Featured Composer (see article below). Back in 2000, when she was only 12 years old, she was part of a
30-minute TV show about my Sylvia Woods Harp Center store. The show was part of Huell Howser's "Visiting" series shown on KCET, Los Angeles' PBS station.
You can read about
this PBS episode in the
Fun Stuff section of my site. Unfortunately, the video excerpt on that page doesn't include Gelsey's segment. But you can watch the entire 30-minute episode using this
link to the Chapman University site. Gelsey's segment starts at about 16:40 in the video. I hope you'll take the time to watch it.
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Our Featured Composer: Gelsey Hughes
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Gelsey Hughes is our featured composer this month. Here's what she has to say
about herself and her music.
I'll begin with a confession: I have barely touched a harp in 17 years.
As with many of the truly great composers and musicians who have worked with Sylvia Woods over the years, my harp journey began when I was very young. Unlike them, I eventually wandered off the path of professional harp playing. I sold my concert grand Salvi Aurora to help pay my college tuition, and got a degree in International Development.
I joined the Peace Corps in 2010, and went to Rwanda, Africa. There are no harps at all in Rwanda, so I acquired a travel guitar and used my knowledge of stringed instruments to teach myself some basic chords and scales. So it was I kept myself company at night when the village was dark and I didn't want to waste candles on reading.
Now I have a Master of Public Health degree and I work as a strategy consultant for the federal government's health agencies. I still have a guitar, and I still compose -- secretly, and only when I won't disturb my apartment neighbors -- but I do not play the harp.
Thanks to Sylvia, the harp never left my life altogether. In many
ways, my harp journey began with her, too. When I was first learning the harp, I rented my instrument from her. I met my wonderful teacher, Carolyn Sykes, through her. Perhaps most importantly, when I found I had a penchant for composing simple pieces, Sylvia was one of the team of amazing women who convinced me to compile them into a book. With Carolyn's help transcribing, my mother's design for the book, and Sylvia's support, I created a compilation of my work - Midnight Fairies - and printed it for distribution at Sylvia's harp store in Glendale, California.
The book still exists in print (from Kolacny Music in Denver), but it mostly lives on as a PDF through Sylvia. It continues to brighten my life and remind me of my old passion for composing whenever a coworker or a friend Google searches my name and finds this strange relic of my past.
The pieces are simple -- they are written by an 8-to-11-year-old, and reflect my knowledge of music theory and my breadth of musical taste at that period in my life -- but they are heartfelt and written with a deep enjoyment of the instrument, and for that reason, I believe this book sets itself apart from other teaching books designed for young harpists. It is a book by a young learner, for young learners. I hope that young harpists who use my book see my 11-year-old face on the back cover and realize that if they, too, have the desire (and perhaps the support of teachers and mentors), they, too, can create something unique and put it out into the world for others to enjoy.
- Gelsey Hughes
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This month's sale
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This month's sale features select music from three harp players featured in our PBS TV show in 2000. (See the article above.)
The sale products by Gelsey and Lisa Lynne are PDFs, and Paul's are mp3 sound files from his CDs.
To get the 15% discount,
enter the code word gelsey in the Promo Code box on your shopping cart page and click "Enter Code"
by August 14, 2017. For more information, see the
15% Off section at the bottom of this newsletter.
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15% off select sale items when you use the code word: gelsey
Our newsletter promo codes are only redeemable on-line, and can only be used for the items featured in the
sale section of this newsletter. They are not valid for phone or e-mail orders. This month's code word is
gelsey and it is good for
15% off the select PDFs and mp3s in the sale section above.
#1. Put the items you want to purchase in your cart.
#2. On the page where you view the items in your cart, type this month's code word
gelsey in the "Promo Code" box, and click on "Enter Code."
The actual price of the featured sale products on this page will then automatically change to reflect the discount. You'll also see a note below the Promo Code box saying the name of the promo code you entered, and the percentage amount of the discount.
REMEMBER: you must enter this month's code word gelsey in the Promo Code box
and click "Enter Code" on your shopping cart page by August 14 to get the discount!
If you forget, or if you have trouble adding it to your order,
email us immediately .
offer expires at the end of the day on 8/14/2017.
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