The Historical Harp Society of Ireland will present two concerts:

Harp Music of the Old Gaelic World

featuring Ann Heymann (USA), Javier Sáinz (Spain), Siobhán Armstrong (Irl) and special guest, Róisín Elsafty, sean-nós singer, at

Nun’s Island Studio, Galway on Monday 28th August
and at
St. Ann’s Church, Dawson St, Dublin on Wednesday 30th August.

The programme of these unique concerts features traditional, Renaissance and Baroque harp music from Ireland and Scotland together with traditional Irish song sung by Connemara’s prizewinning young sean-nós singer, Róisín Elsafty.

This will be a rare opportunity to hear

• Three of the world’s foremost players of the medieval instrument which is the national emblem of Ireland

• The authentic sound of brass and 18-carat GOLD strings played in the traditional manner with fingernails

• Newly commissioned copies of Ireland’s only surviving medieval harp: the Trinity College Harp.

The event is part of the international Scoil na gCláirseach –Summer School of Early Irish Harp, which takes place at Kilkenny School of Music 19-25 August.

The concerts start at 8.00 p.m. and admission is €15 / €10 (Galway) and €18 / €12 (Dublin), payable at the door.

For further information, please visit www.irishharpschool.com or contact the Historical Harp Society of Ireland on tel +353 (0)51 646286.

Downloadable photos at http://www.siobhanarmstrong.com/portraits.htm
http://www.clarsach.net/Ann_Heymann/portraits.htm
http://www.javiersainz.org/portraits.htm

The Historical Harp Society of Ireland will present a concert,

Gael and Gall
Two Worlds of Music from Renaissance Ireland

featuring
THE IRISH CONSORT

JOHN ELWES Tenor
RÓISÍN ELSAFTY Traditional Irish Sean-Nós Singer
REIKO ICHISE Bass Viol
SIOBHÁN ARMSTRONG Early Irish Harp; European Renaissance Harp

in Rothe House, Parliament St, Kilkenny on Wednesday 23rd August at 8.00 p.m.

The concert starts at 8.00 p.m. and admission is €18 (concessions €12), payable at the door.

This concert presents the sound of the two music traditions in 17th century Ireland: the music of the old Gaelic world and the new music of the English colonists. The evocative florid style of unaccompanied 17th century song in the Irish language is juxtaposed with the melancholic genius of the English lute-song composers such as the legendary John Dowland, whose music would have been familiar in the great colonial houses of Ireland. Virtuosic viol music accompanied by the bell-like and melting sound of an early Irish harp strung both in brass and 18-carat gold wire rubs shoulders with renditions of lively Irish instrumental music which became fashionable among the 16th and 17th century English. This programme shows off the musical beauty to be found on both sides of the cultural divide in early Ireland.

The Irish Consort was founded by Siobhán Armstrong in 2002 to explore the music of early Ireland in the wider context of contemporaneous British and continental repertoire. Comprising the best Irish performers together with invited guests, the Irish Consort presents the sound world of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Ireland.

The is an event of the international Scoil na gCláirseach –Summer School of Early Irish Harp, which takes place at Kilkenny School of Music 19-25 August.

For further information, please visit www.irishharpschool.com or contact the Historical Harp Society of Ireland on tel +353 (0)51 646286.

Downloadable photos at http://www.siobhanarmstrong.com/portraits.htm

Scoil na gCláirseach –
Summer School of Early Irish Harp
19-25 August 2006
Kilkenny
Ireland
Historical Harp Society of Ireland




A unique summer school devoted to the early Irish harp, which is being held in Kilkenny this month, has attracted participants from as far afield as the USA, Italy and Japan.

Scoil na gCláirseach – Summer School of Early Irish Harp will be held in Kilkenny 19th – 26th August with lectures and concerts as well as instrumental tuition from the world authorities on this harp, Ann Heymann (USA), Javier Sáinz (Spain) and Scoil director Siobhán Armstrong (Ireland).

Organised by the Historical Harp Society of Ireland, the Scoil is now in its fourth year and has become the premier international event for early Irish harp. Scoil students will study the techniques and repertory played on the instrument from medieval times to the 18th century, and will explore the history of Ireland’s historical harp.

“This summer school is part of a concerted effort by the Society to bring about a revival of the playing of our magnificent national instrument”, said Siobhán Armstrong, chair of the HHSI, who along with Ann Heymann, will perform on copies of the medieval Trinity College harp – the Irish national emblem – strung with both brass and 18-carat gold strings.

The HHSI (http://www.irishharp.org) was founded in 2002 to promote Ireland’s forgotten national instrument, the wire-strung cláirseach: the historical harp of Ireland and the country’s national emblem.

“The early Irish harp, of which the Trinity College harp is the most famous example, is almost unknown in Ireland and rarely heard now”, said Ms. Armstrong.

“The demise of this harp around 1800 led to the invention of the modern gut- or nylon-strung neo-Irish harp which is now ubiquitous but which bears no resemblance to the original Irish harp’, she added.

She said that the original Irish harp was famous not only in Ireland but also throughout Europe from the early Middle Ages for the beauty of its sound and for the skill of the Irish harpers who played it with their finger-nails.

Further details on the summer school, the tutors, lecturers and performers are available through contacting tel +353 (0)51 646286 or info@irishharpschool.com and can be seen on http://www.irishharpschool.com.

Downloadable photos are available at http://www.irishharpschool.com and at at http://www.siobhanarmstrong.com/portraits.htm
http://www.clarsach.net/Ann_Heymann/portraits.htm
http://www.javiersainz.org/portraits.htm

//ends//