May 1 Harp Concert Celebrates Start of Summer

/

May Day marks the start of the summer half of the year.


Local harpists will offer a May Day concert at 7:30 PM on Friday, May 1, 2009, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Morgantown, WV. Featured guest artist is Leah Marie Trent, from Lewisburg, WV. Also performing are Eric Harshbarger, John Lozier, and the Almost Heaven Harp Circle directed by Cindy Lewellen.

The concert benefits the mission of Harping for Harmony Foundation (HHF), to promote harmony and community, locally and globally, through harp music.

Tickets

$10 for adults, or two for $15
FREE for children under 12

Sponsorship

$30 - Name Listing in Program (includes 2 tickets)

$50 - 1/4 page Display Ad (includes 2 tickets)

$75 - 1/2 page Display Ad (includes 4 tickets)

$100 - FULL PAGE DISPLAY (includes 6 tickets)

More information:
http://www.harpingforharmony.org
John Lozier - 304 276 5141 or jl@harpingforharmony.org
Ruth Heavener - ...

Millennium Harper Awards Program

/

Hi, this is to announce a renewal of the Millennium Harper Awards Program


Any active harpist, regardless of skill level, may declare a quest, claim a title, and receive a Millennium Harper Award. The quest must involve live performance. It must be a substantial service to your community. And it must stretch your comfort level as a person and performer. These criteria define a worthy quest. Check links for Titled Millennium Harpers and for Current Year Quests.

Starting in 2001, about 40 harpers have claimed Millennium Harper titles. Many more declared quests but never finished and told their stories.


Check the links above for more information. Anyone can be a harper.

Membership and its benefits

/

You can be a member on this website. The benefits? You are able to subscribe to notifications whenever a specified page is updated. So, for example, you could get notified whenever I update this journal, or add material to the Venezuela, Millennium Harpers, Almost Heaven Harp Circle, etc.

You as member can opt in or out as much as you like.

Let me know if you would like to be a member. John

GET A HARP!!

/

Millennia: a new small harp for a small budget:

 

 

 

This is a simple, rustic harp with just two and a half octaves (19 strings). Designed by John Lozier especially for giving with Millennium Harper Awards, the Rafaella is easily portable and very durable. It is also very suitable for use with children of all ages. John carries up to 10 harps of this sort when he does school programs.

About 40 Millennium Harpers have received Rafaella harps in recognition for completing their worthy quests.

As of January, 2009, John is not actively producing the Rafaella harp.

2007 Annual Report

/

November 29, 2007

Twelve years ago we started Harping for Harmony Foundation with a very grand vision - to promote harmony and community, locally and globally, through harp music.

On the global level, my original idea was to support and encourage travel by harpists to war-torn areas. I have set the example, over the years, with travel to El Salvador, Haiti, Russia, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela. We also supported travel by former board member John Kovac to Cyprus. We also provided funding for Patrice Fisher's projects in Guatemala, and for Lis Joosten's project in Honduras. We helped Guatemalan carpenter Rigoberto Hernandez get a successful start making harps.

The Millennium Harper Awards project represents our record of local efforts. The idea was to recognize the pro-social efforts of local harpists in many places. Through this program we distributed many hundreds of small ceramic lapel pins, and we gave away 40 small harps.

We maintained weekly harp circles for several years at the Ronald McDonald House. More recently we have reduced our commitment to a monthly harp circle, at Church of the Brethren.

We sponsored Valentine's Day concerts two years in a row, but did not continue.

At a recent board meeting, we reached a consensus that we would should be more active in our own locality and region, beyond our harp circle gatherings. However, we have not acted in that direction.

Various factors and circumstances have led to a reduced level of activity in the past two or three years.

I have increased my involvement with Venezuela, where traditional harp music is very much alive.

In my absence, in 2006 and 2007, others have continued our traditional involvement in the Ireland Festival in March.

growing crisis in world peace since 2001 has made the prospect of international travel more difficult than ever, while arguably increasing the importance of "harping for harmony."

The decisions to be taken now involve whether and how to continue in our mission. In simple terms, we can redouble efforts, hold steady, or give up.

To continue our mission, I suggest the following activities:

1) schedule a Morgantown concert for early next year

2) re-launch the Millennium Harper Awards

3) launch a new campaign to recruit and sponsor a harpist who will travel to a war-torn area.

We can hold steady for another season, if we do not wish to undertake one or more of the suggested activities.

Sparky the Arpa Llanera

/

Saturday, March 4, 2006

A few hours ago I took posession of my own llanero harp, and I love it! I don´t ordinarily name my harps, but I will call this one Sparky.

The name comes from my reading of a novel which I finished on the same day, less than an hour ago. It is Cantaclaro, by the famous Venezuelan author Romulo Gallegos. This is a great story, matching or exceeding his more famous novel, Dona Barbara. This should be a BBC mini-series.

I can´t resist telling some of the story. Florentino is a traveling singer whose rambles are interrupted, as you might imagine, by a love interest at a ranch. The girl is Rosangela. She thinks the man she lives with is her father, but he knows he is not. The mother, his wife, died when the girl was born. To escape the pain, the idealistic Payara left for 18 years, returning from the wars disillusioned and hopeless. The girl revives him with her pure love, but this mixes with a mutual attraction between the girl and the older man. Of course, this cannot be.

Enter Florentino, a vagabond musician who has made a career of amorous conquests. When the girl discovers the truth about the man she called father, she begs Florentino to take her away. He does, but he treats her with unprecedented respect and takes her to his own mother where she finds protection. There, a new love triangle emerges involving Florentino and his stay-at-home brother, Luis.

There is more, about official corruption, human warmth and kindness, revolutionary politics, visionary prophets, and the rich folkways of the plains (llanos, or llanura).

If you think about it, you can probably figure out how it ends. The legend is that Florentino, the useless vagabond, was taken away by the devil. A subtle reading of the story is much more revealing.

So, how does this clarify my naming the new harp Sparky?

Well, Centella, or "spark", is the nickname given to Rosangela, not by the famous poet Florentino but instead by the stay-at-home bachelor brother, Luis, so practical, so lacking in poetry and romance. Luis´s poem, the first ever, memorializes Rosangela´s arrival just as a violent thunderstorm initiates the rainy season. She was the spark. The legendary Florentino was bested.

John Lozier

Fernando Gubry - a Passionate Harpist

/

Fernando Guerrero Briceño is a "crossover" harpist of a different sort. This Caraqueño plays the pedal harp, but he is even more passionate about the traditional Venezuelan style, known as criollo or llanero. After I spent almost the whole day with Fernando, he drove me to La Bandera where I caught an overnight bus to Guanare.

Here I am, at the foot of the Andes (pie de monte = "piedmont"), one step closer to my destination - Elorza, the very heart of the llanos, six hours from here on very bad roads.

More later about Elorza. This note is about Fernando.

Get this. Fernando was perhaps the first teacher of Alfredo Rolando Ortiz!! They went to school together, at about age 13. In Alfredo´s book (the yellow one), he mentions a friend named Fernando. We drove past the school, it is called Colegio Champagnat, located on Avenida Miranda in Caracas.

Fernando, a lawyer by profession, talks expertly about history. This Miranda, for whom a major boulevard is named, fought with the French and his name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

When I called Fernando in the AM, he invited me to his office on the 22nd floor of a prominent building. I brought my little yellow Harpsicle (by William Rees). Of course, as I expected, Fernando could not keep his hands off - he immediately took it and played half a dozen traditional creole harp forms. There are about a dozen specific forms, such as pajarillo, kirpa, contrapunteo, pasaje, and tonada. Each form can be elaborated in various ways, simple or complex. The musical emphasis is on the SONG or lyrics, rather than the instrumental performance.

For those of celtic inspiration, as Fernando and I have agreed wholeheartedly, the BARDIC TRADITION is very much alive and well in Venezuela! I´ve been saying this for a while, but this year you simply must be a BELIEVER!

PEDAL HARPISTS NOTE: Fernando has produced various transcriptions of Venezuelan traditioal music for pedal harp, under his pen name FERNANDO GUBRY. Check him out!

I met Fernando last year through Patrice Fisher of New Orleans. Fernando says she is a "hero" for her harp teaching in Guatemala. They had met in Mexico. Now, in addition to knowing Alfredo, I learn he also knows Lis Joosten, who is promoting harp music in Honduras.

A year from now, I hope to bring a tour group combining traditional music and ecotourism. More later. You heard about it here first!

John Lozier

From Caracas

/

I spent time in the air my Venezuelan novel, Cantaclaro, by the renowned Romulo Gallegos. Bus to Caracas was easy, straight to the Metro, then from Metro to my hotel across the street from the station. In a little while I´ll meet my friend Fernando, a lawyer and a harpist. I´ve invited him to go to the fiesta with Adolfo and me, we shall see if he accepts.

I´ve been watching TV to get a perspective on culture and news. Very very interesting. There is a channel of government news, rather like a public TV, no ads, but lots of propaganda. Their video style is rather antique. Lots of vistas, human interest shots, around the country, while they talk about something else entirely.

The big headline right now is Negroponte´s talk in recent days against Venezuela. One headline uses the word ¨fascista¨. Also featured, demonstrations in India against Bush, and a Carnaval float in Rio De Janeiro, with Venezuelan participation, featuring a 40 foot figure of Simon Bolivar. Note that Bolivar is a revolutionary hero for many countries, not just Venezuela.

There are about 80 channels, mostly fluff, many cartoons and soaps, but also including CNN and CNBC in English with subtitles. These two stations seem to be competing to claim primacy in the area of ¨business news.¨

VTV, the government station, is rather quaint and charming. They had an evangelical preacher this AM, superficially apolitical but implicitly supporting the government. Likewise they had a sympathetic catholic priest on for a while. And they also had an interview last night with Father Bourgeois, the American priest who years ago established annual protests against the School of the Americas, military training linked to torture and disappearances through out Latin America.

This links back to Negroponte. In US, they just show him and what he is saying now. Here, they give some background, telling how he was involved in Vietnam,El Salvador, Honduras, and elsewhere. Our mainstream media could do a better job of this. VTV is propaganda, but then so is (are?) our mainstream media.

John Lozier

Newsletter January 1, 2006

/

Newsletter January 1, 2006:

Happy New Year, harp friends!

Since 1995, our mission has been to promote harmony and community, locally and globally, through harp music.

Since 2001, we have given away 37 small harps in our Millennium Harper Awards Program. In 2005, we granted $1000 to Lis Joosten for a harp school project in Honduras, and $500 to Christina Cotruvo for a workshop for blind musicians at Overbrook School. Please search this website to learn more about Harping for Harmony.

In 2005, we also made a $5000 commitment to support the El Molino Harp School in Venezuela. In March, a group of young musicians (between 12 and 25 years of age) will spend a week with harpist Euro Olivero and traditional singer Adolfo Cardozo. El Molino is Olivero's family ranch. Cardozo is not only a musician and impresario, he is also a professor of agriculture and the founder of CENDI, a nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental education. Cardozo has written more than 30 songs about the the natural world and sustainable agriculture. Performing as "La Doctora Gallina," Cardozo's group has produced three CD's, each with its illustrated songbook.

Please read on to learn how traditional llanero music teaches lessons about the environment and sustainable development, and how you can help to continue this important work.

In living practice, llanero music resembles what may have existed formerly among the ancient celtic bards. Harps widely found, and they are readily taken up and played even by humble cowhands. In full performance, a singer is accompanied by a trio of instruments - harp, cuatro (a 4-stringed guitar) and maracas. Venezuelan country folks are keenly attentive to the world around them. Native plants and animals, especially birds, are frequently named in traditional song lyrics. Their habits and habitats are described. Thus the music is important for teaching natural science and respect for the earth.

With changing times, llanero music has declined. Recordings displace live performance. A style of accordian music called vallenato invades from across the nearby Colombian border. Where there were formerly dozens of small family-style clubs like Caney del Arpa in Guanare, now there is just one.

El Molino is a working ranch, but is is also new farm demonstration site in the heart of the savanna. It is modeled after CENDI's first demonstration farm, La Florida at the foot of the Andes near Guanare, established more than ten years ago.

In this new year, we are announcing a new and more formal membership policy and campaign. We need new sources of financial support: for international projects like El Molino; for various domestic projects; and for our Millennium Harper Awards. We also want to launch a new grant program especially for members.

You can help. Please follow links here and here to explore, pledge, and make donations on line. Or, make your pledge by mail to HHF, 428 Van Gilder, Morgantown, WV 26505.

(Note: With this new program, we no longer offer free "harper for hire" links and web pages to all comers. Instead, we list "members and sponsors." See how it works here.)

Very Best Regards

John Lozier, Executive Director

A Harp Skit from the Teachings of Gandhi

/

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, THEN YOU WIN! - Gandhi

A skit for 10 or more people and harps

Several harps are placed in a circle on the floor.

Scene 1: “First, they ignore you.” One person plays harp in the circle. Others come by, singly or in two’s or three’s. They pantomime IGNORE, (e. g. looking around, talking with companion, stumbling over harpist).

Scene 2: “Then they laugh at you.” One person plays harp. Others come by, as before, but now they notice the harps. They pantomime DERISION (pointing, laughing, scoffing, sneering). However, one or two others join the harpist in the circle, and they continue to play together.

Scene 3: “Then they attack you.” Two or three people play harp. Others come by as before. Now they pantomime ATTACK, hitting, throwing things, making angry faces. HOWEVER, after passing, some of the attackers return quietly to join the harp circle.

Scene 4: “Then you win.” Ultimately, all of the onlookers join the harp circle and continue to play, harmoniously. (If more people than harps, use rhythm instruments, clap softly, snap fingers, etc.)

Variants: Pure pantomime, use signs to convey message, no speaking, just harping. Narrator speaks the message, otherwise pure pantomime. Different lines spoken by different people. First line by one person, subsequent lines by two or more speaking in unison. Climax: everyone chants THEN YOU WIN! THEN YOU WIN! THEN YOU WIN!

Decide as a group how to perform the skit. Be cooperative, and USE YOUR IMAGINATION!

John Lozier

New Orleans Post-Katrina

/

Tuesday, 10/25/05. After Nick left on Monday morning, I took the free ferry across to Algiers, and joined up with the Common Ground project.

This morning I went with several others from here to unload the truckload of bikes that came from Chicago. The unofficial count was something like 450. Clara from Chicago told me most of these bikes come from scrap salvage sources. Many are in good condition, but they are mostly older models, with a heavy proportion of Schwinn and Huffy. Many nice Raleigh type three-speeds.

This afternoon I took my harp to the New Orleans Lockup when prisoners were released. A group from Common Ground went to interview those who were being released, concerning their treatment. I played my harp for about 15 minutes in the discharge area, no one objected, I got some smiles.

Check here for updated pictures and news from Plan B, including a link to the Morgantown's Positive Spin website.

Monday, 10/24/05. Today I'm across the river in Algiers. Nick started back today, I will return by train to West Virginia, via Washington DC, on Thursday.

I've moved from a house with no electricity in the ninth ward, connecting with a group called Common Ground.

I discovered this operation when a young guy from Common Ground happened to find the Plan B bike shop. He happened to mention the name of the main person, Jenka, and I remembered her. She also recognized me, instantly, when she saw my harp tied to the back of my pack.

There seems to be some isolation of various private non-profit relief efforts from one another. Folks are too busy to really do the diplomacy that needs to happen. The bike shop folks want to fix bikes. The free restaurant fixes meals. Common Ground distributes cleaning supplies and food, runs a clinic and helps with legal aid. The peoples' groups are scattered, while the corporatereconstruction is well coordinated. Everyone is stressed. Folks are mostly behaving well but not always.

This morning I set up a computer at the free clinic in Algiers. They have lots of volunteers, all ages and skill levels. Everyone is working very hard, but the weather is beautiful. Today very windy, almost chilly, but sunny.

This afternoon I crossed back to New Orleans, to Plan B, where two bike mechanics were due to arrive from Chicago. There is a very convenient free ferry boat from across the Mississippi.

John Lozier

Sunday, 10/23/05. The Plan B Bicycle Project is in a warehouse, in the older part of town that did not actually flood. We stayed last night in a house in a seedy neighborhood, but on relatively high ground that didn't flood. Looks bad, but that was true before Katrina. Quite a bit of wind damage even where flood did not come.

Plan B folks are young, pierced, tatooed, with dreadlocks and mohawks. Very, very devoted to their bikes, we worked from arrival till almost dark, rehabbing these bikes. Three of the bikes went out the door to local users while we were working.

Their volume in the past has been more like dozens than hundreds. This will be a challenge.

There is a retired guy named Paul who is the janitor and all-around fixer at the warehouse. On Saturday morning, Nick and I used our U-Haul truck to salvage a freezer from the sidewalk, for Paul. In the process, we also made acquaintance of a true NO character named Scott, who is a contractor that lives near Plan B. Scott was in NO throughout the hurricane, and for several days after he WAS the police (he says) because he distributed his 40-some firearms to neighbors who collectively defended their homes from looters. What got him started was my harp with the decoration that says "Preserve our Bill of Rights." He said indeed, we need that second amendment.

I spent Saturday evening with jazz harpist Patrice Fisher and her husband Carlos. They took me to the top-flight jazz clubs, first for dinner at Palm Court, then for good measure to Snug Harbor. Carlos and Patrice are terrific hosts. They know, and are known by, all the musicians and maybe also the club operators. Patrice has been running a harp program in Guatemala for several years. For more, go here.

On Sunday, we helped Paul scavenge refrigerators from the sidewalks of the city. It seems that most folks prefer to get insurance money to replace them rather than to clean out three weeks worth of rotten food. Paul is collecting them to use in furnishing apartments in the warehouse, for an artist's colony.

There are humvees patrolling the streets, and also police, not a whole lot of people. Folks distributing new testaments in front of the cathedral. I played my harp for an hour or so, and collected about $1.50 in tips. A peaceful scene on a Sunday afternoon.

I've been eating at a "free restaurant" set up by volunteers in Washington Park, a few blocks from the Plan B shop. They also have free clothing and other items. Workers I spoke with were from New York and Florida.

John Lozier

10/22/05: I posted this report from an internet cafe in New Orleans' French Quarter.

Nick Hein and I drove a U-Haul with 85 bikes from Morgantown, straight through, arriving 3 PM yesterday at the Plan B community bike shop. For more info, go here. There are 500 more bikes coming on Tuesday. This is putting the Plan B effort up a huge notch. The wider plan is (or should be) to rebuild NO with sustainable transportation.

Even with the city rather empty, there are quite a few bikes on the streets. Many single-speed, which is just fine here in flat country. It looks like a scene from the 50's. Or, also, from Haiti, which shares the French tradition in architecture.

Driving in, whole forests were laid on the ground. Many roofs are covered with blue tarps waiting for workers to repair them properly. Many roofs are GONE.

John Lozier

Overbrook School Project - David Goldstein Letter

/


David Goldstein is Director of the National Resource Center for Blind Musicians, at the Overbrook School in Philadelphia. We recently loaned 3 harps for a workshop led by harpist Christina Cotruvo. One harp remained at the school, as a gift from Christina. (We gave it to her, and she chose to donate it to Overbrook). Here are parts of David's recent letter to me:

Dear John,
I would like to extend my grateful appreciation for the loan of your harps to our Summer Braille Music Institute. I also want to say how truly wonderful it was that the students had this experience. Christina was just the right person, a very fine ambassador for Harping For Harmony.
The purpose of the Institute is to help young people who are blind learn the skills and strategies to study music at the conservatory level. Emphasis is on the braille music code and technology that allows them to independently produce written theory assignments. It is quite intensive. The harps, simple enough for anyone to get something good-sounding out of -- and to be hugged back by -- provided a haven and a respite, not to mention exposure to instruments many had not had an opportunity to experience first-hand.
Christina has described how the harps moved into the dorm and shared our couches. Just as it's the students who make a program, so too do the instruments. Your harps, and the hands and hearts behind making and distributing them, added their special harmony. They are part of the memories the students have to take back with them as they continue making the most of opportunities in their busy and exciting lives.
Sincerely,
David Goldstein, Director National Resource Center for Blind Musicians


For more about this or other topics, try using your own keywords in the SEARCH box.
John Lozier

Overbrook School Project

/


Christina Cotruvo has finished presenting a week-long workshop for young blind musicians, at Overbrook School in Philadelphia. Harping for Harmony Foundation provided three small harps (19 strings) for the project. Here's part of Christina's report:


It has been a full and busy week. The harps were a huge hit. Monday night for my first ensemble period, all students got to play the harps and incorporate them into a "get to know you" and "how was your first day" improvisation. The harps have been available all week in the dorms. Students gather around them in the evenings, playing and talking and singing. It has been an incredible bonding experience. This summer camp has provided them the opportunity to talk and be with others just like them and the harp has been an excellant communication tool!
Christina Cotruvo

One harp remains with Overbrook, and Christina purchased a second for herself. These harps are similar but not exactly like the Rafaella.

For more information, always try using your own keywords in the SEARCH box.


John Lozier