My husband, Andy Scott who is a composer, will shortly be writing a new piece for solo harp. He has been commissioned by young talented harpist, Keziah Thomas who has recently moved to the US, so the piece will be premiered at the Forge in September in London and then in Carnegie Hall in New York in October. Andy wrote his flute and harp sonata for me nearly 8 years ago now and I will be re-recording it soon with Clare Southworth on flute for a new CD of all of Andys flute music due out next year. So after 8 years, another harp piece, and this time a major solo work for harp by Andy is well overdue.
Keziah is an exciting young harpist and has set up a really interesting and novel way to raise funding for the commission. Rather sadly, the ability to access funding for the arts has somewhat gone down the pan over the years and it is harder and harder to do creative things in the arts. So it's really inspiring to see a young artist not being limited by the lack of funding out there by public bodies!!
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Finally - I couldn't take the nasty sound they were producing so I ended up doing what I always normally do when I get blisters. (But usually I don't get blisters quite this thick, which is why I was holding off from the doing this...)
It's probably against all correct medical advice.... but I usually file them off with a nail file. Takes a bit of a while when the skin is that thick, but they would have split whilst I was playing at some point anyway. I think filing them so there are no edges is safer, as then you are less likely to 'snag' your skin when you are playing. So, for the first time in years, I have 3 really raw fingertips and that bottle of surgical spirit which I have had hanging around for years is finally coming into use again as I'm dunking my fingertips in there as much as possible. Luckily only one of them is really sore to play on and I'm hoping it will have hardened by this Saturday when I'm playing the Mozart flute and harp concerto! Not a piece to have a painful right hand 2nd finger, but c'est la vie! I must remember to smile and not grimace whilst playing. I'm looking forward to Sunday and not obsessing about my fingertips for a while. These are the most stubborn blisters I think I have ever had. They are just not going down at all and I'm getting really fed up with them now :-( I had another Carl Davies gig with the RLPO last night. Usual film stuff ending with that sacred quartet of British proms music. Wood - British Sea Songs Arne - Rule Britannia Parry - Jerusalem Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance March No 1. Towards the second half the blisters had popped up again and were sounding pretty horrible. It's such hard work trying to get a decent sound with the damn things.
This is the part of the stain glass windows in my local church, St Mary's Church in Sandbach.
Not sure I approve of the left hand position but nice to see his thumbs up! Yesterday I had my second gig in 4 months where I had to sightread a piece I didn't know in a concert. It was fairly straight forward this time - Mass of the Children by John Rutter - but still it was that heart in mouth moment each time I turned the page of hoping the pedal changes marked in the part were actually correct. All good fun & I suppose it keeps me on my toes - so to speak !! |
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AuthorLauren Scott is a harpist & composer and has been blogging on Harpyness for over 10 years. If you enjoy reading Harpyness and you'd like to buy me a virtual coffee that would be very welcome. Cheers!
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