Play the Harp with Heart (even if you’re just starting)
During these five magical weeks, you will attend one virtual presentation or workshop each week.
Our five gifted harpists are freely giving you tools, tips and encouragement that will ensure you
come away with new skills and understandings of music, harps and your own special gifts with
the harp.
After each presentation, you will have a week to integrate all that you’ve learned before
attending the next in the series, all on your own schedule. This retreat is designed like a staircase
– each step builds upon the last to ensure that you come away, not just with information, but
with new skills that are integrated into your hands and harps.
1) You will have new skills that will turn your practice time into progress time, giving you
more facility and techniques to be able to get around the harp and make your fingers do what
you want them to do!
2) You will be able to arrange favorite tunes on the harp and then create your own music,
which you can use on stage or when improvising in a therapeutic setting.
3) You will be able to establish an intense mind/body connection to feel comfortable and
confident enough to JOYFULLY perform, whether it is in service, as a therapeutic musician, or
as an on-stage performer.
This event starts Saturday, October 22, 2016. Each Saturday we will share the presentations in
a live webinar, a recording of which will stay online for the next week so that you can watch as
often as you like and integrate into your daily harp time. You will also be able to purchase
lifetime access to the teachings for a nominal fee.
Scroll down for more information about our presenters and what you will learn from each of
them. And please, CLICK HERE to get immediate access to the first of many FREE GIFTS
offered as part of this Virtual Harp Retreat and to ensure you are notified as soon as
registration opens for this transformative, free event.
Our Harpists
Presentation Number One: Practice Like you Mean It!
Anne Sullivan
Anne Sullivan began her concert career at age twelve when she
appeared twice as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In
addition to being an accomplished recitalist and chamber
musician, Anne is harp instructor at the University of Delaware
and Swarthmore College, and is founder and director of Harp in
the Mountains Summer Festival. Anne is the author and arranger
of numerous works for harp and presents workshops nationwide.
Anne is also the chief Harp Happiness Expert at
Harpmastery.com, where she blogs, teaches and coaches harpists
worldwide through her online membership program.
Presentation: Practice Like You Mean It: 4 Steps You Can Take Today to Eliminate Confusion
and Frustration and Love Your Playing
Most of us were never taught how to practice. We just put in a lot of time and effort and hope
it pays off. With the 4 step system Anne presents in this special hour, you will learn what the
most successful musicians know about how to get results from their practice every day, so they
can learn music faster and play more beautifully.
With her warm and generous spirit, Anne really gets to the heart of harping, encouraging and
inspiring everyone to love practicing, and to get the most out of it.
Anne’s website is: www.HarpMastery.com
Next Up: Joanne Griffin
Presentation Number Two: Arranging Music for the
Folk Harp
Live Webinar: October 26
Joanne Griffin
Joanne Griffin has explored many different musical
instruments, and says she is a living testimony to the joy
and fulfillment that can be had as a life-long learner. It
was 1995 when she first saw a harp up close and said to
herself, “I wonder how you play THAT?!?” And it wasn’t
long until she had it all figured out!
With a background as an elementary school teacher,
Joanne now takes great pleasure sharing just how to
play harp and she finds teaching harp and related
theory a natural extension to her teaching career. The
need for accessible material for her harp students led
Joanne to become an arranger and publisher as well.
Joanne is also a certified Therapeutic Harpist, a calling that has freed her up to explore the harp
in new and creative ways. This has allowed her valuable insight into those in emotional and/or
physical distress. Harp music is the ultimate instrument for creating beautiful melodies and
soothing harmonies.
Presentation: Arranging Familiar Tunes for Folk Harp
This workshop is designed to introduce ways to arrange familiar tunes on the harp. Preceded by
a quick review on basic theory, Joanne will share how she approaches taking a familiar tune and
making a variety of harp-friendly accompaniments of your own, or simplifying someone else’s
arrangement that you may find too advanced at the moment. Joanne will also provide ideas on
how to make substitutions for tricky measures in prepared harp music. This workshop includes
a handout as well as a gift of a published piece of music by Joanne. It is Joanne’s hope that she
can pull back the veil of mystery about creating arrangements for harp, and encourage new
players to forge ahead with a heightened sense of creativity and confidence.
Joanne’s website is: http://www.joannegriffinmusic.com/
Next Up: Martha Gallagher
Presentation Number Three: Find your Muse and Set
her Free!
Live Webinar: November 2
Martha Gallagher
A harp. A voice. A heart. Life stories to share; bluesy,
tender, gutsy, poignant, joyous. Martha Gallagher echoes
in her teaching the words of poet Robert Frost, “I am not
a teacher, but an awakener!” Martha's workshops and
presentations are full of music, ideas, information and
inspirations, wrapped up in a whole lot of fun. They are
for anyone who is yearning to develop and/or deepen
their connection to their harp, their muse, their
audience, themselves and life. Join Martha and awaken
your bardic soul!
Martha’s website is: http://www.adkharper.com/
Presentation: Set Free your Musical Muse
PRESENTATION: Set your fingers free and your soul ablaze with the amazing power of
improvisation and creating your own music. Whether you are a story teller with an audience, or
love to simply work out song ideas for your cat, the tips and tools Martha shares in this
workshop will have you and your muse communicating and making music that is all yours.
Next Up: Lynda Kuckenbrod
Presentation Number Four: Healing with the Harp
Lynda Kuckenbrod
Live Webinar: November 9
Despite playing various other instruments since
childhood, Lynda Kuckenbrod found her true love in the
harp. She says it is much more than an instrument to
her; It is an avenue to the soul. She began her healing
harp journey when her mother was in the hospital;
while playing for her there, she realized that the gentle
sounds of the harp would result in her mother’s blood
pressure dropping to a normal level. It was the
beginning of a special journey into therapeutic music.
Lynda has since trained as a bedside musician, and plays
for hospice and hospital patients and in nursing homes.
Through her training and teaching, she is able to help in the healing process through sound,
rhythm, frequency and resonance. As the Director of the Therapy Harp Training Program, Lynda
has developed an international training program for harpists and other musicians.
Presentation: Healing with the Harp
In her inspiring presentation at the Hands and Hearts Virtual Harp Retreat, Lynda will lead us on
a journey of healing through music and the harp. She will demonstrate how we use our
improvisation and arranging skills to play for those who are ill or dying and help us recognize
the effect that rhythm has and how the metronome fits in with our healing music work. You
will be inspired by this very heart-centered presentation!
Lynda’s websitehttp://www.therapyharp.com
Next Up: Kate Kunkel
Presentation Number Five: Perform With Joy
Kate Kunkel
Live Webinar: November 16
Kate began her musical journey at the age of 4
on piano, but veered away from music as she
pursued her career as a writer and entrepreneur.
During a very stressful phase in her life, Kate took
up the harp to ease the pain in her soul, and she
attributes the healing and creative properties of
the instrument with giving her a new life. Within
a year of picking up the instrument and teaching
herself to play, Kate moved to Nevada and began
working full time as an entertainer, defeating her
serious stage fright and beginner status to fulfill
what she sees as her true purpose in life – to
entertain, to inspire and to educate. Now, more
than 20 years later, Kate passes on her love of the harp by encouraging everyone to seek out
that which gives them JOY, and sharing that joy with the world.
Presentation: Performing with Joy
In her presentation at the end of this powerful retreat, Kate will take you on the next step in
your journey. Now that you have newly acquired skills to help practice more effectively,
arrange familiar tunes, improvise on a key and create your own music, as well as the techniques
to use all of those things to play in a therapeutic setting, Kate will help you bring all of this
together in a mind/body connection between you, your harp and your audience. Whether it is
playing for hundreds on a stage or for one person who is passing away, Kate will give you
valuable tools and techniques to quell performance jitters while encouraging you to share your
love of the harp any time, any place, without fear and with great JOY.
Kate’s website www.PerformWithoutFear.com