Date/Time
Date(s) - December 17, 2014
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Location
BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts
Categories No Categories
Celebrate Christmas and the holiday season with the Winter Harp Ensemble.
Glorious music and song combine with festive stories to warm your heart and wrap you in the Christmas spirit.
One of the country’s most joyous annual traditions, Winter Harp returns to the Lower Mainland for five performances in three cities to close out their 11-city Western Canada Christmas concert tour.
Winter Harp is a concert experience that has captured the spirit of the season in a gloriously-evocative way. It has been the must-see ticket on the holiday calendar for more than two decades. Known for its sold-out houses and standing ovations, this world-class ensemble comes home to St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church on December 20.
On stage, Winter Harp’s outstanding musicians and singer, clad in beautiful medieval attire, perform a collection of music that ranges from familiar carols to Celtic, medieval, world and Spanish tunes. At the theatre performances, backdrops of cathedral and snow set the stage for the golden Celtic and classical harps, drums, tambourines, temple bells, flutes and an assortment of beautiful ancient and rare instruments, including the ethereal-sounding bass psaltery (the only one like it in the world), the organistrum (an early form of the hurdy-gurdy) and the Swedish nyckelharpa.
Winter Harp 2014 Artists include:
Kim Robertson: Celtic harp, voice
Janelle Nadeau: Pedal harp, voice
Roger Helfrick: voice, harp, guitar
Lauri Lyster: percussion
Jeff Pelletier: flute, bass flute, wooden piccolo
Joaquin Ayala: nyckelharpas, bass psaltery, organistrum, symfonie
Lori Pappajohn: Winter Harp Director
Says Lori Pappajohn: “It is our great pleasure to present the 22nd year of Winter Harp. It is a true honour to again bring our special concert of music, songs and stories, and to share the wonder of the Christmas season with Western Canadian audiences. We welcome people of all backgrounds to join us in this unique and joyful celebration of the season.”
This year also marks the re-release of Lori Pappajohn’s debut CD Songs of the Heart, first issued in cassette form in 1993 (few people had CD players then!).
“At the time I was touring with my trio Harps International. People loved our rendition of Danny Boy, so I put together a recording of beautiful folk songs — including that iconic tune,” says Pappajohn, who plays both harp and flutes on the recording.
These soul-stirring melodies on harp and flutes mix with the soothing sounds of nature (ocean, rain, loons) for an uplifting CD that comes straight from the heart. Favorites include Greensleeves, All Through the Night, Shenandoah, Amazing Grace and She Moved Through the Fair.