Live music is back!

25 May 2021

On Sunday I had my first rehearsal with 4 Girls 4 Harps in over a year. With live music off the menu for the majority of the pandemic, all our 20th Anniversary Concerts were sadly cancelled and we haven’t played as an ensemble since our last rehearsal in March 2020.

It was absolute bliss to be able to come together, and work and laugh and listen to each other, whilst working on our programme for a concert at Champs Hill on 17 June. We last performed there in 2016 the day after Donald Trump was elected President, and the morning was awash with commentary from the election as well as our music making. I hope that our return next month will be more of a celebration for us and the organisation. In fact, for many of the audience this may be the first concert they have attended in person so I am sure there will be excitement all round!

We are working on a programme that includes many pieces from our 2017 CD Dance, but also some of the repertoire from our cancelled Anniversary concerts, including my arrangement of the gorgeous Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. There is a stunning harp part in the original orchestration which I took care to keep intact in this four harp version. We are all enjoying personifying the intensity of the string writing too, with the wonderfully soulful ‘cello opening melody and virtuosic solo violin that represents Scheherazade’s voice.