Rural Vermont Member, Mary Fran Stafford, brings Gráinne Hambly, a wonderful harper from County Mayo, Ireland to Montpelier. March 16th, 2005

Wednesday March 16, 2005, 7:30 pm
Unitarian Church on Main St. in Montpelier, VT
(across from the Kellogg-Hubbard Library)

Join us for an evening of Irish traditional dance tunes, airs and harp
pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries, performed by this master of the Irish
harp.

Tickets available at door, $12 / $10 for seniors or students
To reserve, call or e-mail 802-223-0423 mfstafford@verizon.net
or 802-879-6935 moon.harp@verizon.net

Hello!

I am very excited to announce a concert of Irish music performed on the
harp, in Montpelier Vermont. Gráinne Hambly, a wonderful harper from County
Mayo, Ireland, will be touring the US this spring. For the first time, she
will be visiting Vermont, and she is looking forward to doing a solo
acoustic concert at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier.

Gráinne is a masterful performer. Her jigs and reels are a skillful blend
of perfectly ornamented melodies with syncopated bass lines, and her slow
airs are authentic and expressive. This is sure to be an incredible
performance by one of Ireland's finest harpers, and a rare opportunity for
Vermonters to hear this internationally recognized performer on the Irish
harp. Gráinne is also a brilliant concertina player.

-Mary Fran Stafford

Gráinne Hambly comes from County Mayo in the west of Ireland. She started
to play Irish music on the tin whistle at an early age, before moving on to
the concertina and later the harp. She lived in Belfast for six years, where
she completed a Masters Degree in Musicology, awarded by the Queen's
University. Her main research topic was folk music collections and the
harp in 18th-century Ireland. Gráinne studied the harp with Janet Harbison,
and in 1992 became a member of the Belfast Harp Orchestra, with which she
has toured extensively. She has also performed throughout Ireland, Britain
and North America with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. As a solo musician, she
has performed on various occasions in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland
and Israel as well as touring extensively in the United States, giving
concerts, workshops and master classes. In 1994, Gráinne was awarded the
T.T.C.T. (a certificate for teaching Irish music, credited by Comhaltas
Ceoltóirí Éireann and the Department of Education), and since then has
taught extensively, both privately and at various festivals and
summer-schools. These include Scoil Eigse (organised by Comhaltas),
Rencontres Internationales de Harpe Celtique (Dinan, France), Mosenberg
Harfentreffen (Germany), 'Celtic Days on Lake Constance' (Switzerland),
Somerset Folk Harp Festival (USA), ISFHC HarpCon 2003 (USA) and Edinburgh
International Harp Festival. Recording credits include 2 tracks on The Art
of Harp (vol. 1 – compilation CD produced by Rüdiger Oppermann), Feasting
with Carolan (with the group Clarsheree), and Carillon and Colmcille (with
the Belfast Harp Orchestra). Gráinne has also released two solo CDs,
'Between the Showers' (1999) and 'Golden Lights and Green Shadows' (2003).

Some Comments:

"Gráinne Hambly is an internationally recognized performer on the Irish
harp....widely acclaimed and.....in the front-line of performers in her
genre world-wide."--Dr. Mícheal Ó Súilleabháin, Irish World Music Centre

"The international harp community finally has something they have been
waiting for: a young virtuoso from Ireland who plays traditional pieces in a
relaxed, undogmatic manner with a wonderfully swinging rhythm. Her technique
with the left hand in particular lends the old melodies a fresh flair.
Concise, rhythmically accented syncopated basses groove under the silvery,
frolicsome and dancing strings of melodies. This is music for the heart,
the head, the body. This is the future of harp music in Ireland!"--Rüdiger
Oppermann

To learn more about Gráinne Hambly, visit her website at
www.grainne.harp.net