My Harp Story - by John Lozier
Introduction
My harp story is in two parts:
1991 - 2005 - discovery of harp in Venezuela until my second visit there in 2005. This is an important chapter in my whole life story.
2005 - 2026 - subsequent visits to Venezuela and Colombia, and years following my last visit in 2018.
Part 1
I discovered the harp In 1991, traveling with three agricultural scientists visiting cattle producers in Pariaguan, Venezuela, in the vast plains of the Orinoco river. At that time I was studying for a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics at West Virginia University College. My companions included agronomy professor William Bryan and two other faculty. Bryan had spent several years in Venezuela. I was chosen for the team because I had good Spanish language skill.
A self-taught musician from early life, I had been old-time fiddling since the mid-1970’s. In Venezuela I carried a harmonica, which helped to “break the ice” when visiting farms.
It was in Venezuela that I discovered widespread use of the harp in traditional folk music. A trio of instruments (harp, cuatro and maracas) performed with or without a singer. A typical setting for live, acoustic performance would be a caney del arpa (harp hut) such as pictured here.
Upon returning to US I obtained a harp and began teaching myself, with cassettes from Alfredo Rolando Ortiz, a very prominent performer. I also connected with John Kovac, a harpist and harp maker in Front Royal, VA. John had discovered the harp while in the Peace Corps in Colombia. In 1994 I established Harping for Harmony Foundation (HHF) as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in West Virginia.
John Kovac turned out to be virtually the only other gringo harpist I’ve ever known who was as devoted to Latin American harp music as I was. He and I collaborated for many years to promote and sponsor live performances of traditional Latin American harpists. {I came to call this my Baquiano Project, named after the trail guides herding cattle in the plains of Venezuela and Colombia.}
From John I learned how to construct simple harps with certain Paraguayan features. I built several small harp kits and carried them to El Salvador in 1994. More later.
{John passed away in 2022. He was a very devoted performer, playing several times a week at local restaurants and other venues. He traveled with me to Venezuela in 2006.}
I began a website, harpingforharmony.org, in 1999. It has been revised continuously, and currenrly I’m working to wrap it up into a narrative forward into the 2020’s.
Some early HHF Mission Priorities:
Peace: Education and international travel by myself and other volunteer musicians to troubled and war-torn places. Sponsored travels have included El Salvador, Haiti, Russia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, and Colombia.
Childhood: School, after-school and community projects reaching out to children. The From Millennium Harpers project challenged dozens of other folk harpists to declare and complete community missions, to claim the title of “Millennium Harper.”
Livelihood: The need for livelihood includes teachers, nurses, caring professionals, craftsmen, laborers, harpists and other musicians. All are vocations, callings. In my careers I’ve promoted ecological farming or sustainable agriculture. In general, I’ve supported the right of each person to a livelihood, while also honoring the generous contributions and great service of unpaid volunteers.
Health: Many harpists have developed a practice or specialty in delivering bedside comfort, or therapy. Harp music can bring comfort, respite, healing, and inner peace to people in homes, hospital and hospice settings.
Democracy: Harp music can attract favorable attention to any important message. Nothing is more important than democracy. I’ve aimed, through harp music, to remind everyone to recognize our common humanity; to practice good citizenship; to defend human rights; to promote justice, and to preserve the common wealth.
I never did learn to read music. It seems so simple to me. The seven-note diatonic scale is simply repeated across several octaves. Tonic, sub-dominant and dominant chords (1, 4 and 5) are easily learned, and other chords on other scale degrees are obvious. The harp blossomed in Latin America from about 1600, with Spanish conquest. Soon thereafter the chromatic scale and keyboard spread rather aggressively throughout Europe, while the 7-note diatonic scale persisted in relatively marginal areas, in Scotland and Ireland and in the New World.
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By 1994 we had a small harp community in Morgantown and I had built a dozen or more small harps. In March of that year, I and a couple of harpist friends first visited the Irish Spring Festival in the little town of Ireland, West Virginia. We continued such visits annually for a dozen or more years.
In July of 1994 I traveled to El Salvador as part of a Morgantown community effort to support the reconstruction of the country after their civil war. I went as part of a volunteer group with Building with the Voiceless of El Salvador (BVES). The mission was to support the Salvadoran Peace Accords and to assist rebuilding. Morgantown had rallied to send observers to their election and to dispatch a truckload of relief materials.
It was about then that I came up with the idea of Harping for Harmony, inspired partly from my friend Steve Earp who as a potter who spent a couple of years in Nicaragua, forming strong ties with other potters organized as Potters for Peace. In Morgantown, the Companion Community project sponsored a fiesta to raise money for El Salvador. Steve donated fine hand-made bowls which raised several hundred dollars.
Planning for the El Salvador trip, I learned from John Kovac to make a small, portable harp that would stand up under hard use. With help from various sponsors we produced parts for 12 harps. I carried seven harp kits to El Salvador; four stayed there, and I returned with several decorated in two styles.
The "Mariposa" design is brightly painted with butterflies, in the traditional style of the Maya. The "Concertacion" model depicts a countryside with people, houses, trees and fields. "Concertacion" is a word which connotes harmony, consensus, and a willingness to overcome differences.
In El Salvador, I carried my brightly-painted little 22-string harp almost everywhere. I played on buses and street corners, at churches, and in parks and homes. People called it "arpa del Rey David." In the old testament story, a shepherd boy with his harp cooled the anger of King David, an archetypal story of harping for harmony.I went to El Salvador hoping to find harping preserved in popular culture.
I had hoped to find a persisting harp music tradition in El Salvador, but was somewhat disappointed. Folks were interested in the harp, but there was a lack of teachers and instructional materials. I presented two workshops and various informal introductory lessons on harping, reaching a total of perhaps 40 interested persons.
In July, 1994 my first Harping for Harmony newsletter appeared, continuing somewhat regularly for several years. I’ll link the actual newsletters elsewhere.
THE MISSION OF HARPING FOR HARMONY IS
to promote harmony and community, locally and globally, through the sharing of traditional and new music, especially harp music;
to recruit young people to play traditional music, especially harp music;
to celebrate the diversity of traditional music through intercultural sharing, especially between Latin America and North America.
It is not our purpose to compete with finely crafted harps favored by many harping professionals and amateurs. .
THE FUTURE OF ARPA IN CENTRAL AMERICA
The harp is widely popular across Mexico and South America, but not so much in Central America. The Spanish word for harp, ARPA can also be an acronym for a possible movement to re-establish the harp in popular culture (Asociacion para el Reestablecimiento Popular del Arpa). This requires recruitment and training of new harpers among the Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans, as well as North Americans. Fortunately some steps have been taken by Lis Joosten in Honduras and by Patrice Fisher in Guatemala.
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From 1995 to 2015, we held regular annual events at the Irish Spring Festival in Ireland, WV. The first in 1995 was with renowned harpist Sue Richards.
In 1999, I initiated the Millennium Harper Awards, providing recognition to harpists everywhere who completed a self-defined challenge to perform across a defined region. The Millennium Harper program ran from the millennium year of 2000, through 2008. Harpers were challenged to define their own quests, and then to claim their Millennium Harper Awards. These titles were awarded based on evidence of a “worthy record of live performances” that is a “substantial service to your community.” Also, it was to stretch your comfort level as a person and performer. Finally, skill level was not important.
Here is a list of Millennium Harpers with their titles (and year of award).
Nadya King, MH to the Young Elders of Western Oregon (2008); Jane Valencia, Vashon Island Millennium Harper of the Paper Cranes (2008); Sandy Hehl, Millennium Harpist to the Elderly and the Young of Hampton Roads, VA (2004).
Jo Morrison, Impromptu Millennium Harper for Maryland (2003) and Isle of Lewis (2005); Susan Kitsch, MH of Roads Less Travelled of the Southwest (2003); Monet, Millennium Harper of the Great Lakes (2003) Susan Neff, MH of Small Harp Awareness in Central Illinois (2003); Cameron Hempstead, Millennium Park Princess of Los Gatos, Saratoga and Campbell, CA (2003);
Deborah Bennett (with Maggie Pinckard,as WOAD) Wine Harpers of Northern California (2002); Lina Bird, Preston County and Morgantown, WV (2002); Valerie Blessley, Pacific Northwest Waters; Jeffry Brown, Children's Literacy of SE Pensylvania (2002); Becky Fox, Northern Puget Sound (2002); Jeanne Page, New Mexico's Story in Song (2002); Susan Galloway, Nova Scotia (2002).
Pat Greenwell, Children's Harp Awareness of Central Alberta (2002 and 2003); Tanah Haney, Bridges and Locks of Southern Ontario (2002); Skye Hurlburt, Southern New England; Angela Kovatch, Somerville, Massachusetts (2002); Cindy Lewellen, MH to Those Who Wait at Ruby Hospital, Morgantown, WV (2002); Mary Kathleen Lloyd, Brazos Valley, Texas (2002); Liz Mayer, Blushing Busker of Flemington, NJ (2002); Peggy Morgan, Daniel Boone Nat'l Forest; Penny Price MH of South Androscoggin County, Maine (2002); Paula K. Parker, The Memory of America's Civil War (2002); Maggie Pinckard (with Deborah Bennett, as WOAD)> Wine Harpers of Northern California (2002); Bev Russell, Ghost Busker of SE England (2002); Muriel Willingham, Oregon Covered Bridges (2002); Sara Walthery, Historic Indiana (2002).
Kira Jones, MH of Jeffco-Rockport (2002) and Evergreen, CO (2001); Julie Arreguin, Nacogdoches, Texas (2001); Maureen Duffy-Boose, AKA Aisling, Salt Lake County, Utah (2001); Thom Dutton Cape Cod (2001); Brian Eisenbart, Mission Viejo, California (2001); Mary-Lela Gilbert, Orange County, CA (2001); Skye Hurlburt, Southeastern New England (2001); Harper Tasche, Washington State (2001); Ardy Mattox, Eastern Oregon, (2001); Polly McMahon, The Inland Empire, Spokane County (2001); Paula Jean Ann McKay Wentz, American Generations (2001); Marika Wojchiechowski, MH of Conyers, GA (2001).
April, 2001, Remembering Northern Ireland
I visited Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, arriving in the evening. I arose early, as planned, and walked the Garvaghy Road (site of “the troubles”) from bottom to top. I was surprised to find it a wide thorofare with residential neighborhoods set quite far back. At the top, I found the Drumcree Road, and took a beautiful walk into nearby countryside where stands the Drumcree Chapel. At Drumcree I was surprised to find no real village just a handful of houses. I sat on the curb outside the chapel gate, playing my harp for about 10 or 15 minutes.
Presently, a man came out of a yellow house across the road. It was Trevor, the caretaker, who invited me to see the chapel. I accepted his offer, and he returned to his house to fetch a very large key. We then entered the charming cut stone structure, not large or very grand but with a nice silence within. With Trevor's permission I played my harp for a few minutes in the chapel: Be Thou My Vision, Simple Gifts, and De Colores. When I asked him if he recognized the tunes, he said "the last one sounded Mexican," which of course was correct. As I left, I signed the visitor's register and wrote "harping for harmony." Trevor directed me to the home of the pastor, across the dale. I found the parsonage, beyond a wrought iron arch, across a bright, dewy yard dotted that morning with yellow daffodils and purple crocus. It was a bit past 8 AM, and I exchanged a brief "good morning" with the pastor, John Peckering.
A light rain began to fall as I walked back toward the town. When I reached the corner where stands Saint John the Baptist Church, people were beginning to gather for 9 AM Mass. Since it was now raining harder, I sought shelter within. It is a grand and beautiful modern building, a very pleasant place of refuge from the rain. After Mass, I went to speak with the priest. Of course, I was carrying my little harp, as always, and this caught his attention. I told him I was looking for other harpers, and he sent me, with an escort, to the adjacent primary school in search of Aileen McKeever.
Aileen was teaching a first grade class in Irish language. But the priest was wrong: she is not a harper but a fiddler. In the Irish language, she introduced me to the children - and they understood her and replied! I played a short program ("music from many lands") and then the children sang for me. As I left, I was able to say "thank you" in Irish, which sounds something like "GUR a my AGad."
Aileen sent me on to another teacher, who was the harper that the priest had in mind. Helene (I think it was Murtagh) was in charge of a pre-school group of about 25. The children sat happily on little chairs while I delivered my short program. Then, as they filed out, I held the harp above them and each child reached up to touch the strings. What a charming moment it was for me, to see the bright little faces looking up at me through the strings of my harp!
In July, months later, I recalled the beauty of Portadown, and the warmth of the people I met. My visit there was a step in a personal journey, as a harper for harmony, toward a vision of peace on earth. As told in the bible story, the music of David's harp calmed the anger of Saul. This is the vision that inspired the mission of Harping for Harmony Foundation: to promote harmony and community, locally and globally, through harp music.
As harpers for harmony, our guiding vision is peace in Portadown, in all of Ireland, and everywhere.
Harps among the Maya of Southern Mexico and Guatemala
April 10, 2002
There is great local variation in customs among the Maya, whose languages and traditional costumes can differ markedly from one town to the next. Visiting Guatemala with a Rotary Club group, I spent time among Kakchikel Maya in San Lucas Toliman, then went by myself to Chiapas in southern Mexico where I visited the Tzotzil Maya at Chamula.
In San Lucas Toliman, these Kakchikel Maya do not traditionally use the harp, but found my little harp interesting. I showed Abraham Hernandez, the staff carpenter at the local Catholic mission, how to build a little harp like mine. Abraham’s son Rigoberto, an accomplished guitarist, took on the task of learning to play the harp.
These Maya of Guatemala seemed more ready to adopt the harp for popular or secular music, whereas for the Tzotziles of Mexico the harp is dedicated to religious use.I tracked down harpmaker Juan Mendez Gomez on a recent trip to Mexico, in the town of Chamula, in Chiapas, I had learned of him from a video (Laudero Chamula, produced by Universidad de Ciencias y Culturas de Chiapas) that shows him producing harps and other stringed instruments with simple knives and hatchets. Instead of using clamps when gluing, he wraps the parts tightly with string. Wire-strung harps have been in use for hundreds of years by these Tzotzil Maya Indians. I was in Chamula for 3 days at Easter. In the Easter procession, I counted 50 harps, along with scores of guitars, accordians, drums, whistles, and even firecrackers. The music is very distinctively indigenous, and does not sound “Latin American.”
Local folks don’t like to be photographed or recorded, so I just grooved on the live scene. My harp, which I carried with me always, attracted attention. I was invited into a closed ceremony where, amid the smoke of copal incense, traditional religious authorities (mayordomos) in elaborate costumes danced and sang (or chanted) in the Tzotzil language to the sound of 2 harps, 2 accordians, a guitar and a drum. The songs constitute a cycle of prayers with indigenous as well as Christian roots.
Apart from religious settings, I met several people in Chiapas who readily picked out their own Mayan style of music on my harp. Mayan harps are quite large but very light-weight. They have 22 strings, a bass group of 6 and a treble group of 16, with a wide space in between. In relation to a diatonic scale, the bass strings are tuned to 1, 3, 5, 2, 1, and 5. The treble group starts on the third and runs up 2 octaves to end on a fifth.
These harps are as different from Paraguayan as from Celtic harps. Technique involves the use of thirds and octaves in the melody, with appropriate single or double note bass accompaniment. The performances are simple, repetitious, and spell-binding.
There are many adventures for the intrepid harper, in Chiapas, in Guatemala and elsewhere. Where in the world are you going with your harp!!?
John Lozier
2003, October 23-24, Folk Harp Workshops, Coffee House Concert with Castlebay Duo
Russia 1995; Haiti 1997; Venezuela 2005-14; Colombia 2014-present).
2003-04 - Camp Horseshoe
Part 2: Return to South America
In spring of 2005, I returned to Venezuela after retiring from West Virginia University. I intended to devote the rest of my life to promoting the Latin American harp, eventually labeled the Baquiano Program. While at WVU, my office mate at WVU was a Venezuelan agronomist Domingo Mata. We both loved Venezuelan Joropo music, which we played in our office. Domingo connected me with a colleague, Adolfo Cardozo, a professor of animal science and community development at UNELLEZ in Guanare, Venezuela. Also, Adolfo a fine musician and singer-songwriter, under the name of La Doctora Gallina (Doctor Chicken).
El Molino Harp School
(Note: Venezuela plans have changed, see elsewhere)
The El Molino Harp School Project was conceived in 2005, in a colclaboration with CENDI, a Venezuelan nonprofit organization devoted to sustainable agriculture, environmental education, and ecotourism. In March, 2006, young Venezuelans will gather at a farm in the llanero heartland, to receive instruction from harpist Euro Olivero and other traditional musicians. The climax will be attendance at the famous Fiesta at Elorza on March 19. A budget of $5000 will cover purchase of several harps; local travel and living expenses; and compensation for the instructor and other musicians. International "adventure" ecotourists will be invited to participate. This project is part of a much larger program of development under the leadership of Adolfo Cardozo, founder of the musical group La Doctora Gallina.
2007-08; Venezuela (summary 2005-11, joropo music with many links)
2009-10 - trip to Venezuela, harp lessons with Goyo Lopez
2011-12 - trip to Venezuela, guest of Elvis Piñero
2013-14 - trip to Bogota and Arauca, Colombia; Harp study with Hildo Ariel Aguirre Daza and others
2015-16 - host for US tour by harpist Sergio Nicolas Aguirre, son of Hildo Ariel
2017-18 - host to US tours with various harpists
2019-20 - host various harpists in US; travel to Arauca, study with Hildo Ariel and others
(a work in progress 12/31/2022)
ARPATUR ... ARPATUR, Venezuela 2005, ... Colombia 2014
harp-making ...
school programs...
international projects: El Salvador, Russia, Haiti, Cyprus, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia
John's Journal ...
Other projects: Ronald McDonald, Honduras, Academia, Nicolas 1, Pedro, Nicolas 2, Geronimo, Silvio ...
Almost Heaven Harp Circle has been meeting monthly since ... date.
Other projects approved for 2005 are Tegucigalpa Harp School and Summer Braille Music Institute.
All funding is contingent upon donations.
The purpose is to underwrite and implement a traditional llanero harp workshop project in Elorza, at Fundo El Molino. A group of 5 to 10 young Venezuelan musicians, aged 12 to 24, will be invited to spend 1 to 2 weeks with harpist Euro Olivero and other traditional musicians. Participants will be selected in consultation with local musicians including Adolfo Cardozo, composer of children’s music for environmental education. Foreign visitors will be accepted upon payment of larger fees, to help cover costs. Main expenditures include 1) purchase of several harps; 2) compensation to the harp instructor and other musicians; 2) lodging and meals at El Molino; and 3) local travel arrangements for participation in the Fiesta at Elorza, March 19, 2006.
Carolina Vega, May 3-5, 2019 (Press Release)
Carolina Vega is a graduate of the prestigious music school, Academia Llano y Joropo, in Bogota, Colombia. She has launched a professional career that includes the Celtic and world harp repertoire as well as her native traditions of Colombia and Venezuela.
November 7, 2019, 7 PM, Nicolas Carter Concert - Parkersburg, WV
Thursday, November 7, 2019
7:00 PM 8:00 PM
Parkersburg Arts Center(map)
Parkersburg Arts Center
725 Market Street,
Parkersburg, WV 26101, USA 304-485-3859
info@parkersburgartcenter.orgParaguayan Harpist Nicolas Carter - Concert, Morgantown, WV
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
7:00 PM 8:00 PM
Morgantown Church of the Brethren464 Virginia AvenueMorgantown, WV, 26505United States (map)
November 8, 2019, 7 PM, Nicolas Carter at Beaver Falls, PA
Friday, November 8, 2019
7:00 PM 8:00 PM
Christ Presbyterian Church
828 Blackhawk Rd (Rt. 251)
Beaver Falls, Pa
(map)
As of May, 2025 I have aged and no longer vigorously pursue the mission of Harping for Harmony. We shall see what survives the years ahead.
