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Harpists gather at music school; concerts also planned

July 27, 1999 By Barbara Wolff

The heavenly music you will be hearing the first week in August on the lower campus does not mean you’ve arrived at the pearly gates. Rather, those celestial sounds belong to participants in the 1999 Historical Harp Society 1999 conference and workshops, held this year for the first time at the university.

Historic instruments from Ireland and Europe, China, South America and elsewhere will be featured. A special guest will be Grainne (“GRIN-ane”) Yeats, granddaughter of poet William Butler Yeats. A poet in her own right and mistress of the steel-stringed Celtic harp, she harbors a particular interest in traditional Irish singing.

The conference segment of the event, July 30-Aug. 1, will cover new research, new uses for historic harps, musical traditions of the instruments and more. Sessions will be held at the School of Music in the Humanities Building.

Workshops, Aug. 2-6, will concentrate on hands-on sharpening of harpers’ existing skills and introducing new ones. UW–Madison event coordinator Chelcy Bowles, UW–Madison director of continuing education in music, says about 100 participants from around the country and the world are expected to attend, and many will bring their own medieval, renaissance or baroque period instruments. Activities will take place in Chadbourne Hall.

In addition to the conference and workshops, three public concerts also will be offered:

  • Medieval and renaissance music performed by faculty on period instruments, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 31, at St. Francis House, 1001 University Ave.
  • Harps, viols (ancestor of the cello) and voices will present medieval and renaissance music 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1, in Morphy Hall, Humanities Building.
  • A Collegium (ensemble) Concert will wrap up proceedings 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6, in St. Francis House. Medieval, baroque and Celtic music will be performed.

Tickets for all concerts are available at the door for $5/general, $3 seniors and students. For more information, contact Bowles at 265-5629, or Julia Chyrowski, 263-2790.