Music fit for a King – Galway concert features three of world’s top harpists

Date Published: 01-Aug-2012

The Historical Harp Society of Ireland (HHSI) will present its 10th summer concert series of medieval to 18th century treasures of Gaelic music, Ceol don Rí – Music Fit for a King – at Galway’s Nun’s Island Theatre, on Thursday, August 16, at 8pm. It’s part of a series which also takes in Dublin and Kilkenny.

The Galway concert will feature three of the world’s top historical harpists – Ann Heymann from the USA, Andrew Lawrence-King from Guernsey and Ireland’s Siobhán Armstrong (IRL), who will play rare, early Irish harps strung in brass, silver and gold wires.

In the ten years of its existence, the HHSI has been exploring and researching the centuries-old musical landscape of Ireland and its Gaelic neighbour, the Scottish Highlands and Islands, which share a common culture, language and musical heritage.

These concerts are a rare opportunity to hear early Irish harps, the ancient instruments depicted in Ireland’s national emblem. The performers will play replicas of the Trinity College or ‘Brian Boru’ harp—Ireland’s only surviving carved and bejewelled medieval harp.

The audience will have a rare opportunity to experience the beautiful sound of brass, silver and 18-carat gold strings played in the ancient manner, with fingernails, by three of the world’s foremost early Irish harp players.

For the shows, the harpists will be joined by Éamonn Ó Bróithe, a Galway based sean-nós singer and the Scots Gaelic singers Talitha MacKenzie and also Griogair Labhruidh, whose family has been steeped in the musical traditions of Argyll for centuries; together with historical Scottish piper, Barnaby Brown, whose rare medieval triple-pipes and early 19th century small pipes complement the sounds of both the harpists and singers.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.