Presenters

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Rhett Barnwell

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Musical fluency characterizes Rhett Barnwell, who is at ease playing organ, cello, piano and French horn as well as classical and lever harp. His musical focus, no matter what instrument he is playing, composing or conducting, is on music for sacred, healing and meditative purposes. Within that primary focus he has made a special study of Gregorian chant. Rhett has toured with solo sopranos Victoria Lawson and Claire Teuber, has performed and taught at a wide variety of festivals, including Spoleto, and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Historical Harp Society and CD review editor for the Folk Harp Journal. He has many CDs and books available as well as his entrepreneurial venture (with Julianne Ford and Coralie Olszta) Harp Couture – a division of Seraphim Music that offers a line of fashions and accessories for the harp.

Performer website: Seraphim Music

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Getting a Handel on Harp
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 1:30pm  More Info

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Joy of Bach
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 3:30pm  More Info

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Playing for Church without Losing Your Religion
Level: Any Type: Lecture When: Sun. 9am   More Info

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Taize
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 9:30am   More Info

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Bonnie Berk

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Bonnie Berk has been attending Somerset steadily since 2009. She combines her passion for the harp with her passion for yoga and therapeutic harp. She is a board certified holistic nurse, certified clinical musician and registered yoga teacher. She currently teaches yoga in the Central PA region and specializes in using yoga as a therapeutic tool for people with cancer, pain and chronic diseases. We really appreciate our long-time conference attendees like Bonnie who offer to "give back" to their colleagues by presenting on a topic near and dear to their hearts.

Presenter website: Bonnie Berk

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Laughing Yoga
Level: Any Type: Lecture & participation When: Sat. 3:30pm   More Info

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Debbie Brewin-Wilson

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“My Muse, tho' hamely in attire, May touch the heart." Robert Burns
There is nothing ‘hamely’ about Debbie’s artistry as a musician and singer, and the combination of these skills with her passion for Robert Burns results in music that echoes ‘the wood note wild’ as Burns describes the natural and unpretentious singing he liked best. An experienced performer and teacher, Debbie’s repertoire also includes many traditional Scots ballads and Scottish jigs, reels, and strathspeys as well. To date, she has three solo CDs, Dream of Caledonia, Roots and Wings, and Love Came Down at Christmas, a mix of original and traditional songs. Cofounder, with Kathy DeAngelo of the Harper’s Escape (and co-author of the Escape tunebook, Ten Years of Tunes). Debbie has also published two song and harp arrangement collections: Burns for Bairns and Wood Notes Wild.

Presenter website: Debbie Brewin-Wilson

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Basically Beginning I, II, III
Level: Beg Type: Hands-on When: Fri., Sat. 9:30am Sun. 9am   More Info

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Celtic Music for Church
Level: Any Type: Lecture When: Fri. 1:30pm   More Info

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Celtic Morning Prayer Service
Level: Any Type: Lecture When: Sun. 8am   More Info

Cynthia Cathcart

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A visit to Cynthia’s superbly organized and informative web site will fill you with an instant desire to play the clarsach, the wire strung harp, of Scotland and Ireland. In lucid prose Cynthia presents herself with anecdotes and practical information as well as giving a taste of her teaching style in pieces on such topics as how harmonics work and how to handle accidentals on a lever-free harp. You can also listen to a selection of her playing which has been described as ‘Clear, pure and glistening… bell-like…’ and giving the ‘impression of very fine china.’ It is no surprise then to read of Cynthia’s multiple awards and accomplishments, among them being a two-time winner of U.S. National Scottish Harp Competition and recognition that she is one of the world’s foremost experts on the wire strung harp. Cynthia has recorded two CD’s, Alchemy of a Rose and Joy to the World and has four books, including Pathway: A Primer for the Wire-Strung Harp (with CD), From my Music Stand, and Traditional Beginnings for the Celtic Harp .
Presenter website: Cynthia Cathcart

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Get Wired!
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 1:30pm   More Info

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Goal Setting at Your Harp
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 1:30pm   More Info

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Lois Colin

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It’s a privilege to have Lois Colin, a musician with such depth of performance and teaching experience at Somerset. Lois has performed with world-renowned artists such as Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Woody Shaw, and Tom Harrell as well as the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland, and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy to name a few. Having begun her study of the harp at the age of eight, Lois earned a Bachelor of Music from Manhattan College and an MA in Teaching from Lehman College and has been teaching students for over twenty-five years in the New York area and is the founder of the Westchester Harp Ensemble which gives her students opportunities to perform in public. Lois has published several music books, among them The Last Rose of Summer Classic Harp Music For Pedal and Lever Harp, Monica’s Wedding: A treasury of Celtic Harp Music for Weddings and Simple Gifts Classic Harp Music. In addition to her workshop, you'll be able to find Lois at the Colin Harp Music table in the Exhibit Hall.

Presenter website: Lois Colin

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Adapting Arrangements
Level: Int/Adv Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 3:30pm   More Info

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Adapting Arrangements for Beginners
Level: Beg. Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 3:30pm   More Info

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Jaque Davison

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Jaque Davison is the owner of Davison Associates which builds virtual-reality worlds using ActiveWorlds software. Mr. Davison has thirty years experience in 3D construction and virtual worlds. He completed award-winning projects for the U.S. Army, Florida Central University and private businesses. He also creates virtual worlds for training and education. He is heavily involved in developing information management techniques strongly integrating content on the Web with 3-D environments. This is his second year presenting at Somerset on a virtual harp world that he has created as a resource for harpists. He is a harp student and, for the last seven years, studies with Nanette Gibbs in Alexandria Virginia.

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Wide World of Harp on the Web
Level: Any Type: Lecture When: Fri. & Sat. 12:30-1:15pm  More Info
 
Cormac de Barra

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Dublin-born of Cork heritage, Cormac de Barra’s first harp lessons at the age of ten were from his grandmother, Roisin Ni She. Only seven years later Cormac was playing before the Japanese Emperor on tour as part of the Irish Exhibition at Expo ’90 in Japan, repeating the experience two years later at the Expo in Spain. Since then Cormac has toured extensively and played with some of the finest musicians and bands, from The Chieftains to Dervish to Moya Brennan, as well as playing with his brothers and family. He has also worked as a musical director in the theatre and on TG4 hosting a traditional Irish music series for which he won an award. With many CDs, both solo and collaborations with Anne-Marie O’Farrell, Moya Brennan and Ashley Davis, we welcome Cormac to his first Somerset festival.

Performer website: Cormac de Barra

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Accompaniment for Singers
Level: Int-Adv. Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 1:30pm  More Info

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Create an Irish dance tune
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 9:30am   More Info

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Early Music of the Irish Harpers
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 3:30pm   More Info

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Reel Easy Irish Dance Music
Level: Int Type: Hands-on When: Thurs. 3pm   More Info

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Candyce Dunham

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Interwoven with Candyce Dunham’s lifelong engagement with the harp is her commitment to the Suzuki method which was at the core of her own musical training as a child when she was taught by her mother (among others) herself a respected Suzuki teacher. An early award-winner, Candyce won a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music for Harp Performance. Her journey has led her to learning more than the harp, for teaching purposes she has studied bagpipe and tenor drumming, and is certified in Suzuki Harp and Piano. She judges for the Scottish Harp Society, teaches at a variety of celtic workshops around the country, and has created several harp programs, including The Dunham Harps Ensemble. Not stopping with those accomplishments, Candyce and her husband Benjamin rolled up their sleeves and have been building their own harps since 2001. When she's not presenting her workshops, she'll be at the Dunham Harps booth in the Exhibit Hall.

Presenter website: Dunham Harps

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Youth Harp Program: Meet & Greet Intro Session
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Thurs. 1pm   More Info

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Youth Harp Program: Performance & Competition Coaching
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 1:30pm   More Info

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Youth Harp Program: Playing for You
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 1:30pm   More Info

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Youth Harp Program: Harp Chat
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Sun. 9am   More Info

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Youth Harp Ensemble
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Thurs. 3pm, Fri. & Sat. 3:30pm, Sun. 12pm  More Info

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Edie Elkan

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Sometimes a particular experience will connect with existing skills in such a way that a person will embark in an entirely new but inspired path. Such is the case for Edie Elkan, who with a strong background in music, experience as a teacher of piano, and an early grounding in playing the harp, found herself first, returning to the harp to assuage her own grief, and then discovering that the harp was being used in medical environments which in turn led her to found Bedside Harp in 2002, a New Jersey, hospital-based harp therapy program. In 2005 Elkan was recognized by the Society for the Arts in Health Care for her work at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s cancer center, where, in a research project, she discovered that patients who listened to live harp music while receiving chemotherapy were less anxious that those patients who did not. Edie has published Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (about Harp Therapy) and her master’s thesis: The Edie Elkan Method of Teaching Folk Harp as an Instrument of Healing. Also available is a 4-set CD Oodles of Noodles, a recording of a workshop on ‘noodling’ presented by Edie in 2006.

Edie is one of those featured in the book, Coming Home to Yourself: Eighteen Wise Women Reflect on their Journeys, written by Patricia Gottlieb Shapiro and just released in May.

Presenter website: Bedside Harp

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I Got Rhythm and So Do You
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 3:30pm   More Info

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Pachelbel Boot Camp
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 1:30pm   More Info

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Midas Touch: Turning Your Melodies into Liquid Gold
Level: Any Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 1:30pm  More Info
 
 
Patrice Fisher

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There are many sides to this local composer/harpist. It's not unusual to see her play a staid classical gig in the morning and a smoky music club at night. Primarily a jazz harpist, Patrice Fisher favors the music of Brazil and Cuba, saying that not only is the harp ‘comfortable’ harmonically with the music, but that she herself is drawn to the complexities and syncopations: “that’s what makes you want to dance.” Patrice is a graduate of Tulane and Wolf Trap and is based in New Orleans where she has been composing and performing since the early 1980’s. She has also appeared at numerous international jazz festivals with the band “Arpa” in locations such as Bolivia, Cancun and Guatemala. Patrice has 14 CDs of original music out, the latest being ‘Sunset’. In addition to Parsippany, Patrice will be coming to NJ for the New Jersey Folk Festival on April 27, which is showcasing the culture of the Garifunas of Central America, and performing with Bodoma Garifuna.

Presenter website: Patrice Fisher

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Harmonic Improvisation
Level: Int Type: Hands-on When: Fri. 3:30pm   More Info

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Melodic Improvisation I
Level: Beg-Int Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 1:30pm   More Info

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Melodic Improvisation II
Level: Int Type: Hands-on When: Sun. 9am   More Info

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Rhythmic Improvisation
Level: Int-Adv Type: Hands-on When: Sat. 3:30pm  More Info