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Past Events


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2016


June 18, 2016

Spring student harp recital with guest performers takes place 7.30 pm. Saturday, at The Ottawa Mennonite Church, 1830 Kilborn Ave. Everyone is welcome to attend.


May 13 - 15, 2016
Spring Rain Weekend , Fergus & Belwood, with Open Platform Feis & Workshops
Mary will be giving two harp workshops – An Introduction to Irish Harp for beginners and an Advanced Irish Harp Workshop. Harps will be provided for the beginners’ class. Harpists will need to bring their own harps to the advanced class. For more information on this festival contact spring_rain@gmail.com or 519-787-0096.


April 22-24, 2016
The Ontario Welsh Festival, Ottawa – a weekend celebrating Welsh music and culture
A Welsh Tea with harpists, Mary Muckle and guest student harpists takes place Friday afternoon, April 22 . The Children’s Hour ( Ar y Plant) takes place 11-12am, Saturday, April 23 with student harpists participating and the beginners harp workshop with clinician Mary Muckle takes place 3.30-4.30pm, Saturday April 23. All three of the above events are in the Lord Elgin Hotel. Harp maker Tat Stanley will be providing harps for the workshop and will have his instruments available for viewing and sale in the festival marketplace.

Ontario Welsh Festival

For more information on the Welsh Festival including the Gala Concert at Dominion Chalmers Church, Saturday evening with The Three Welsh Tenors and Cordydd Choir from Wales and the Gymanfu Ganu ( Hymn Sing), all day Sunday in Dominion Chalmers, visit http://ontariowelshfestival.ca.


April 17, 2016

The Carpenters of Song – Music and Poetry of Wales, Brittany, Scotland and Ireland
with Mary Muckle, harp & harpsichord; Julie Leduc, harp; Marilyn Jenkins, voice; Loyda Lastra, flute; the Welsh choir Cantorion Cerdd Dant and The Ottawa Youth Harp Ensemble. The concert, within the St. Luke’s concert series, takes place Sunday , 7.30pm, St. Luke’ s Anglican Church, 760 Somerset St. W., Ottawa. Admission is by donation. Door prize is two tickets to the Three Welsh Tenors and Cordydd Choir concert, April 23, 2016.

The Carpenters of Song

“The Carpenters of Song” opens with a medley by Anne Macdearmid of Scottish songs and dances arranged for harp, performed by duo harpists Julie Leduc and Mary Muckle.

Medieval Welsh poets once described themselves as “ The Carpenters of Song’ in reference to their finely crafted art of poetic composition combined with harp accompaniment. Welsh penillion, a compositional form still practiced in Wales, is descended from the art of Welsh poets and harpers. The Penillion Choir Cantorion Cerdd Dant will perform four penillion settings with harp accompaniment. Soprano, Marilyn Jenkins will sing with harp accompaniment, two Welsh folk songs in Welsh and four settings for voice and harp of poems by Irish poet W.B. Yeats with composer Mary Muckle on harp.

Remi Chauvet, along with Denise Mégevand and Alan Stivell, was a driving force in the present day revival of the harp in Brittany. The suite,” Mer des syrènes”, performed by Julie and Mary is one of many compositions which he has written under the name Myrddin with duo harpist Zil. Julie will play “Na Reubairean” a fantasy on a Breton tune by Denise Megevand.

We are including in our concert music by G.F. Handel, because of his admiration for and use of Welsh harpists in his writing. Mary will play David's harp solo from Handel's oratorio "Saul" written for Welsh harpist William Powell. Flutist, Loyda Lastra will perform Handel’s G major flute sonata with harpsichord accompaniment, as well as “Cader Idris”, composed by Jared Denhard for flute and harp. Mary accompanies on harpsichord and harp. Cader Idris is named for a Welsh mountain.

Our concert features in ensemble settings six harpists, - three members of the Ottawa Youth Harp Ensemble, Sarah Dolan, Josee Leduc and Ashley Nicholls along with guest harpist, Erin Dallaire and duo harpists Julie Leduc and Mary Muckle.


EVENT POSTER


April 8, 2016

The Kiwanis Music Festival harp classes, Friday afternoon and evening. For location and timing detail see The Kiwanis Music Festival, Ottawa website.


March 19, 2016
Ealdormere’s Kingdom Arts & Science Competition
within the Society for Creative Anachronism, takes place 9am-10pm, at Rideau Park United Church, 2203 Alta Vista Drive. Mary Muckle is among the adjudicators for poetry, choral composition and a research paper on the Robert ap Huw harp manuscript. For further information, see: www.skraelingalthing.com/caldrithig/kingdom AS2016/index.html or contact ealdormere.k/moas@gmail.com


March 6, 2016
Restoration Musicale
A concert with Mary Muckle & Julie Leduc, duo harpists and The Ottawa Youth Harp Ensemble in collaboration with the Village Voice Women’s Choir of Metcalfe, takes place Sunday, 2.30pm, Winchester United Church, 519 St. Lawrence St. Winchester. Admission is by donation with proceeds in support of the restoration fund for Winchester United Church.


Feb. 28, 2016
Songs of the Misty Isles – Music and Poetry of Wales, Brittany, Scotland and Ireland
with Mary Muckle & Julie Leduc, duo harpists; Marilyn Jenkins, voice and The Ottawa Youth Harp Ensemble. The concert takes place, Sunday, 2pm at St. Andrew’s United Church, Pakenham. Admission is by donation with proceeds to The Syrian Refugee Committee of Mississippi Mills and St. Andrew’s.


2015


Sunday 1st March, 2015, 8:00 PM

A HOUSE AND A HALF OF SCOTLAND

The musical heritage of the islands to the north and west of Scotland is both Celtic and Nordic, a reflection of the islanders’ ancestry. “Close by the Sea” includes folk music arranged for solo harp and harp ensemble from the western islands of Skye, Lewis, Eriskay, Harris and the more remote western archipelago of St. Kilda. From the northern regions there is a children’s song from the Faroe Islands, fiddle music adapted for hard ensemble from the Shetland Islands and two modern compositions by English composer Peter Maxwell Davies, a resident for many years of the Orkney Islands. A folk song from the Orkney Islands, “The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry”, refers to a remote rocky island inhabited by seals who in legend can take on human form. Charles Guard’s hard arrangements of folk melodies from the Isle of Man are featured. One of these Manannan Beg Mac y Lir is in praise of the Celtic god Manannan, guardian of the Isle of Man and son of Lir the Celtic god of the sea.

I have stretched the concept of islands to include music from the island of Britan itself and of Ireland. The penillion choir, Cantorion Cerdd Dant, who continue the Welsh tradition of singing poetry with harp accompaniment, will perform three penillion song settings. Penillion is a musical form descending from the medieval performance practice of Welsh poets and harpists.

The German composer, G. F Handel found a receptive audience for his music during his sojourn in London and his visits to Dublin, Ireland where the Messiah was first performed. Violonist, Douglas Brierley will perform a Handel sonata with harpsichord accompaniment. Flutist, Virginia Dunsby will perform a flute sonata by 18thc. Italian composer Francesco Barsanti, whose professional life was spent mostly in Edinburgh and London. Barsanti, like Handel, prospered composing and performing for audiences in the British Isles, audiences who were entranced by the new European style of music, particularly from Italy, of their time. The renowned Irish composed and harpist, Thurlough O’Carolan, adapted to changing musical tastes by incorporating elements of the Italian style into his compositions. We will be performing two such compositions of his, Miss Murphy and Carolan’s Concerto on our concert, “Close by the Sea”, the Music of Celtic and Nordic Islands.



EVENT POSTER

2014


A HOUSE AND A HALF OF SCOTLAND


The phrase, "A House and a Half of Scotland" refers to a place name, The House of Strings ( Tigh nan Teud), at the halfway point in Scotland, the Atholl area of Perthshire where highland and lowland cultures meet. The House of Strings, likely an inn, was at a ferry crossing where travellers waited and harpers, among other musicians, gathered to ply their trade before a captive audience.

The Atholl area was for a long time the main centre of harping activity in Scotland.
However, by the 17th c., the ancient harping tradition was on the wane, the place of the harp being taken by the fiddle and a new style of European music principally from Italy. Drawing on music from this period of change, our concert, part of the St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Ottawa’s recital series, features the harp music of Rory Dall Morison, harper, to the MacLeods of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, and Irish harper Thurlough. O’Carolan, a sonata by Scottish composer General John Reid, a violin sonata by Arcangelo Corelli , the fiddle music of Niel Gow and traditional Scottish airs and dances arranged for flute and harp ensemble.


2013

December 31st, 2013
New Year's Eve Variety Show
Bob Chiarelli's New Year’s Eve Family Event Guest Performers: The Ottawa Youth Harp Ensemble Date: Tuesday, Location: Centrepointe Arts Complex, Nepean


Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013
Village Voices - Christmas Concert "Hear the Angels Sing"
Guest Performers : The Ottawa Youth Harp Ensemble under the direction of Mary Muckle Date: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Trinity Bible Church Stagecoach Road, Osgoode, ON


Nov. 16, 9-12 a.m. 2013
The Canadian Music Showcase harp and composition classes with adjudicator, Joanne Meis
Freiman Hall, The Perez Building, Ottawa University.


Oct. 19, 2013
A House and a Half of Scotland” – a lecture presentation with slides and harp performance on the history of the harp in Scotland
by Harpist, Mary Muckle, with Harpist, Kelly Aminian,
Westminster Presbyterian Church,
470 Roosevelt Ave. Ottawa.


April 26-28, 2013
“The Harp in Wales” – a lecture presentation with slides and harp performance
by Mary Muckle, Harpist and the Penillion choir Cantorion Cerdd Dant,
Ontario Welsh Festival, The Marriott Hotel, Niagara Falls.
http://ottawawelsh.com/


Saturday, March 23, 7.30 p.m
“Thurlough O’Carolan and the Italians – The Life and Times of an Irish Harper and his Italian Contemporaries, Marcello, Tartini and Geminiani
Mary Muckle, harp, harpsichord & voice: Kirsten Carlson, flute; Doug Brierley, violin and Kelly Aminian, Julie Leduc and Kahlan Miron, harps,
St. Luke’s Anglican Church, 760 Somerset St. W, Ottawa.


2012

March 10, 7:30 p.m.
“The King Who Waits” – King Arthur in Music and Literature
With Mary Muckle, Harp & Voice, Kirsten Carlson, Loyda Lastra, flutes; Cantorion Cerdd Dant and the Heart’s Desire Harp Ensemble, with readings by Paul Birt, Olive Phillips and Alan Thomas.
The Ottawa Mennonite Church, 1830 Kilborn Ave., Ottawa.


2011

Sunday, March 13, 7.30pm
“And Dance Like a Wave of the Sea” – A Musical and Literary Tribute to Irish poet,
W.B. Yeats with Mary Muckle, voice & harp, Kirsten Carlson, flute and the Ottawa Youth Harp Ensemble. Readings of Yeats poetry by Pat Scott.
St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts, 310 St. Patrick Street, Ottawa.