AHS Atlanta 2016

Working for Harp Column has brought so many wonderful things into my life.  Sharing my ideas and passions here, and through the podcast, has given me a drive to create and be creative, opened my mind to the potential of our field, and most importantly, allowed me to meet so many wonderful and inspirational colleagues.  There are so many interesting people and groundbreaking ideas in our field; a fact which was highlighted in Atlanta a little more than one week ago.

I won’t bore you

with endless paragraphs of detail about concerts, workshops and lectures.  Suffice it to say… this conference was extremely well run, organized, hosted, and generally was everything and more than what I expected.  Music and performance of all kinds were represented and highlighted in a variety of ways that both thrilled and surprised.

If you’ve ever been to a conference, you know how hard it is to get to everything.  There are often 3-4 things going on a once, and you are lucky if you only want to attend a few.  I am sure that everyone who attended the conference has lots of stories…

Here are a few of my favorite moments:

• When Park Stickney breaks the fourth wall by being a human on stage in front of 500 harpists and acknowledging how cool it is that we were all there together.
• Trying out every harp I could get my hands on!
• Having the opportunity to play a 200 year old Erard harp with a functioning 8th pedal… thanks to H. Bryan & Company for bringing this beauty!
• Requesting Jan Jennings to play “Rhapsody in Blue” as a part of her memorized, on the spot, medley creation… she is amazing.
• Seeing Duo Scorpio perform for the first time!
• Performing with my fiancée (Kontra Duo) on both a feature performance and as a part of the Virginia Harp Center and Atlanta Harp Center‘s pop-up concert series.  Many thanks to Michael Djupstrom for his awesome composition for harp and saxophone Impressions du Languedoc.
• Hearing the Remy van Kesteren “didn’t know what he was playing” on his recital and thinking how silly that was… how could he not know… and then going to his recital and having my mind BLOWN.
• Remy van Kesteren’s encore, which was dedicated “to the ladies.”
• Ginger and Spice‘s rendition of Piazzolla’s Libertango!
• Seeing so many friends, old and new.
• Meeting so many of you!!

There were so many magical moments and I cannot praise the leadership of the American Harp Society and the Georgia Chapter for the wonderful event that they put on!!

This was my first national conference…

and I can tell you for sure, that I’ll be at the next one after experiencing Atlanta… and I hope to see you there!!!

Share your favorite moments from the conference in the comments section below!