My Harp Story - by John Lozier
Chapter 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.
Chapter 2
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.
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.
In July, 1994 my first Harping for Harmony newsletter appeared, continuing somewhat regularly for several years. I’ll link the actual newsletters elsewhere.
Chapter 3
( Here I will insert short stories about events from about 1995 to about 2000, including folk harpists gathered at the Irish Spring Fesrtival in Ireland, West Virginia.)
1995, March, Sue Richards at the Irish Spring Festival.
1995-2015, Regular Annual Events at Irish Spring Festival
Chapter 4 - 2000 to 2005
1999-2000 - Millennium Harper Awards…
2001, April, Remembering Portadown, Northern Ireland
2002, April 10, Harps among the Maya or Southern Mexico and Guatemala
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
Chapter 5 - Return to South America
In spring of 2005, I retired from West Virginia University with intentions to devote the rest of my life to promoting the Latin American harp (eventually labeled my “Baquiano Program”). My office mate at WVU was Domingo Mata, a Venezuelan agronomist. At that time Domingo and I shared an affection for Venezuelan Joropo music which I played in the office. Passers-by assumed it was Domingo’s selection, but in reality it was mine.
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.
