Hello from Pam

Hello to everyone, and thanks so much for including me as a blog contributor. I am Pam, down a looooooong dirt road in western New Hampshire. I'm a public school music teacher and a keyboard player in a local band. But what I think about, listen to, and practice the most is Celtic harp music. I have only been playing for about three years. I took a year's worth of lessons with a nearby pedal harpist, but now I work on my own, which means that there are probably big holes in my repertoire and technique; I know I should care more, but honestly, I love how things are working out!  There are no other harpists near me, but that's fine - I play out with my guitarist husband as ThistleWood, sometimes accompany a local madrigal group, and have just started working with a local flutist. (Sorry, flautist sounds so....la-dee-dah!).

Like probably most of you, I have pieces almost ready for performance, in-the-works, and in-my-dreams. I'm hoping that putting up a public rehearsal schedule will inspire me to move those last 2 categories along. Here is what I'll be doing this weekend, my prime rehearsal time:

* putting the finishing touches on Catriona McKay's Swan Lk 243
* trying to memorize K. Robertson's Fhear a Bhata
* working on 3 arrangements that our ThistleWood duo would like to record: Sue Richard's Baptist Johnson, Planxty Drew and our own arrangement of something else (Scarborough Fair? The Grenadier and the Lady???)
* My new pieces are 3 shorties: Road to Lisdoonvarna, Merrily Kiss the Quaker and Morrison's Jig.

It's a beautiful day, and I want to sit and read in the sun while the last batch of sap boils down. And it's already 1:00! But I'll get to that harp after I post this.

Thanks for reading with me. Happy Easter!