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VIRTUAL Island Mountain Harp and Cello School
August 16, 2021 - August 20, 2021
$450
Now in its 35th year, the Island Mountain Harp and Cello school brings World-class instructors together with students of all abilities for 5 days. Days are comprised of morning lessons, afternoon special interest sessions and evening performances, with time for coffee and catch-up throughout! We hope you’ll join us!
MORNING INSTRUCTION | NOVICE / INTERMEDIATE / ADVANCED HARP; CELLO (ALL LEVELS)
Maximum class size of 12.
NOVICE HARP WITH SHOSHANNA GODBER
Practice Strategies – making the most out of your practice time is a skill that needs to be learned alongside any instrument. Shoshanna will share her favourite strategies for learning and getting ready to perform your pieces.
Technique – we’ll work on developing a relaxed technique in order play pain-free and with the best tone possible.
Creativity – with the right tools improvisation turns from being scary to opening up a whole new way to fall in love with the harp. Shoshanna will share her improvisation toolbox to help you make your own music no matter your reading or playing level.
“The novice class will consist of three main topics. Every day we will spend time warming up and working on developing proper technique. I will go over fundamentals such as how to sit at the harp to avoid injury, developing a relaxed hand position, best placement of fingers on the strings and proper follow through into the palm. After the warm-up/technique time we will work on learning repertoire. The amount of pieces will be determined by the participants’ playing level. Through these pieces we will work on practice strategies such as analyzing the piece for patterns, placing all fingers in a bracket, dividing the piece into easily learned chunks (even if that is only one bar at a time) and how to coordinate playing hands together. Towards the end of the week we will switch from practicing to learn a piece to strategies to prepare to perform a piece. I will provide recordings of the pieces to aid students in learning the pieces regardless of their note reading ability. Lastly, I will introduce improvisation strategies to help students develop the ability to work creatively on the harp. Strategies will include descending bass lines, pentatonic tuning and a simple repeated chord progression. I will provide students with backing tracks so that they can continue to work on these strategies on their own.” – Shoshanna Godber
INTERMEDIATE HARP WITH SHARLENE WALLACE
Inspiration. Fluidity. Repertoire. Technique. Beauty. Fun.
The Intermediate level harp class will encompass how to play and what to play as well as how to practice! The class will learn new tunes, left-hand accompaniments, exercises and arranging ideas while incorporating relaxation, technical ease, pattern recognition, beauty tone, expressive playing, improvisation and… other virtually mountainous inspirations!
ADVANCE HARP WITH TRISTAN LE GOVIC
In 1971, the Breton harper Alan Stivell released history most famous album “Renaissance of the Celtic Harp”. This album had a fantastic echo within the Celtic world and for the development of the Celtic harp.
Celebrating this 50th anniversary, Tristan will teach some of the tunes of this ground-breaking album in this workshop and talk a bit about the harp in Brittany that led to the album. This will be a great opportunity to understand the variety of styles from the Celtic countries, from Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales or Manx.
CELLO WITH MORAG NORTHEY
“I look forward to working with every beautiful cellist that walks through my online and my studio door!” <3 Morag
This workshop will be tailored to the participant’s level of achievement. Beginners to experienced are welcome.
Each session will begin with warm-ups to unlock and balance the body, free vibrations, and provide ease, accuracy and direction. Cellists will dive into technique, studies and pieces.
Morag offers a very rewarding and memorable approach to furthering your love of the cello.
A teacher for 40 years, Northey adheres to the technical demands of classical music while inspiring cellist of all ages and stages from rudimentary skills to successful entrance in the profession. She has trained in the Suzuki and Kodály methods, taught at the Calgary Suzuki Talent Education Society, consistently leads group and ensemble classes for early childhood, teen and adult levels, and creates and runs a series of unique, multi-age, multi-level, all-encompassing intensive string summer cello camps from her home and with the Island Mountain Arts!
Afternoon Special Interest Class
Every afternoon, we’ll gather together for a special interest class, led by one of our brilliant instructors (and some very special guests! ) Dates TBD!
ARRANGING WITH SHOSHANNA GODBER
Have you ever given up learning a song because you couldn’t find an appropriate arrangement? In this workshop, Shoshanna will give you the tools to make sure that never has to happen to you again regardless of your playing ability! She’ll share music theory essentials which makes creating your own arrangements easier to tackle, ideas for left accompaniment, and how to develop introductions and outros.
THE HARMONIC SERIES AS THE MASTER TEACHER WITH MORAG NORTHEY
Explore one of the great universal laws in a Masterclass with Morag Northey. Connect, recharge and refocus while discovering ways to advance your playing through harmonics, energy flow and sound waves.
MISTRESSCLASS WITH SHARLENE WALLACE
Limited participants / unlimited auditors!
Play one of your pieces or compositions or an exercise for Sharlene and receive encouraging and helpful thoughts… or just bring a question!
“The idea of a mistressclass (masterclass) is for a student to play a piece a scale or even to present a question… and I respond. Like in a private lesson. Everyone else is an auditor to listen to the suggestions in a relaxed way because they are not on the hot seat!”
This format is a way to have an opportunity to get feedback (from Sharlene) about pieces or exercises or compositions that you are working on… for musical ideas, or ways to make something easier, or just to check in to see if what you are doing is working… or whatever you want to ask Shar about!!!
Evening Concerts
MORAG NORTHEY
As part of IMA’s Virtual Harp & Cello School, Morag with Pianist Mary Buckley, will perform an evening of works from David Popper’s ‘Im Walde’ Suite’ Op. 50. The suite reflects what it means to enter, encounter, revere and return home from the forest. She will play the ‘Adagio with Variations’ by Ottorino Respighi and will present her ‘Homage for Mother Earth.’
