West Coast Harp Society

Meeting - August 29, 2017, 6:00 p.m. West Coast Harp Society general meeting and potluck dinner at Elizabeth's home, 3601-1077 W. Cordova St., Vancouver, BC, V6C 2C6

present: Albertina Chan, Elizabeth Volpé Bligh, President, Lani Krantz, Secretary, by phone, Miya Otake, Lori Pappajohn, Marilyn Rummel, Treasurer, Joan Spencer, Joy Yeh   suggestions by email: Alison Hunter, Penny Parry

Potluck dinner began at 6:15 p.m.  Meeting began at 7:30 p.m.

1. The American Harp Society Conference is coming up in Redlands, California, from June 27-30, 2018. We discussed having a group of BC harpists/harpers attending and ways to get there. Alison Hunter emailed that she would like to attend, and wondered whether people might want to do a road trip with stops at harp-related places along the way. Some ideas: (a) rent a car, come back individually by air, train, etc. (b) go individually, (c) take train as a group. Possible stops might be: The Enchanted Harp in Puyallup, Alison Austin's harp shop in Seattle, harp shop in Portland, Salvi and Camac in L.A, "Harps, Etc." in San Francisco, and of course, Disneyland! Let your students know about the Conference. Every other year, the AHS has the Summer Institute, so that will be in 2019.

2. Alison also mentioned the Virtual Harp Summit, the next one beginning on Sept. 14. She wondered whether we could create a discussion group to expand on some of the workshops. If people would like to participate in such a group, please contact Alison.

3. Marilyn heard the Turkish group "Arpanatolia" (which includes a pedal harpist) at the World Harp Congress in Hong Kong and was very impressed with them. They are arranging to play at the Chan Centre on Oct. 25 or 26, 2017. She will let us know as soon as they have confirmation from the Turkish consulate. We can help promote it.

4. Miya mentioned that Christina Tourin would like to come in October to do a workshop on harp therapy. I suggested that she get in touch with Capilano University, which has a course on music therapy, which would give Christina more students, and it would fit their curriculum very well.

5. Marilyn mentioned that this is the 31st anniversary of her Celtic Harp Week in Wells, BC. She had a guest artist, cellist Morag Northey, who will be coming to Duncan in February to do a workshop on harp and cello ensemble music. It will be 2 mornings and afternoons. She will also perform her new theatre/cello work called "17".  Check the website www.westcoastharpsociety.org for details and how to sign up, or contact Marilyn.

6. Sasha Boldachev's concert and workshop Feb.3 and 4, 2018 is expected to go ahead. He has received our letter of invitation. He will arrive from Seattle, WA, USA on Feb. 2 (on tour from Russia). On Feb. 3, at UBC School of Music Barnett Recital Hall, 6361 Memorial Road, he will give a master class from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 to 5:00, then play a concert at 7:30 p.m. On Feb. 4, he will continue the master class for the students who could not fit into the Feb. 3 schedule. That will be at a different location TBA. We will provide driving and accommodation. For now, I expect to put him up at my place, and to pick him up. We will need front-of-house volunteers, though UBC does provide someone to open the hall and turn on the lights. For the master classes, the students will be the UBC harp students and advanced players from the city and province. Less advanced players are very welcome to attend and take notes. Check our web site for details, especially as we get closer to the date.

7. Penny mentioned some issues she had with the web site, so Marilyn has already fixed those and has begun to make some other improvements. We decided that there should be more benefits for being a member, so there will be a discount for tickets for WCHS events. Marilyn is going to add a feature to the site so that we can buy our tickets directly from it. This may cost a bit more annually than the current $200 CND that we are currently paying for the web site, but it will generate much more income in ticket sales if we make it easy. (This last sentence came out of a post-meeting conversation.)

She has a mailing list feature already with 49 people on it, but we could help her add to that by asking our students and their parents to join it. We also should send all our group mailings to her to send to her central mailing list, so that we make sure that everyone gets the information. She would also like a newsletter, if possible, to be sent to the mailing list from time to time. There is a new drop-down from the new Membership tab, where the minutes will be posted.
Be sure to add your news to the web site.

8. Motashi Kosako is coming again on June 30 to July 1. It's right after the AHS Conference. Miya will be the contact person for that, or she will find someone to manage it for her if she is away.

9. Marilyn Rummel is going to the Dinan Harp Festival in France July 17-21, 2018. It is an annual event in a beautiful medieval town in the Brittany area. It is all about lever and historical harps. Marilyn's students are going to give concerts to raise money to help defray their costs. There is room for some Vancouver students 16 - 24  who would like to participate. Email marilyn if you are a teacher of one of those students, or a student yourself.  Everyone - please keep an eye open for these concerts! And let your students know about the festival.