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The Software Jam
Garden Concert Our first official gig was at the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick on the hottest day of the year! The audience were lovely, we only melted a little but had an absolute blast! We hope you enjoy our arrangement of Glenlivet (trad.) and Andrew Smiles by Karen Marshalsay. (Recorded on an iPhone) A huge thank you to the guys at Accusound for helping us with amping up our harps!
We love that our harps still sound exactly how they do acoustically but all of Warwick could hear them! https://accusound-shop.com We are a harp duo based in France and England. We met at Edinburgh Harp festival about 5 years ago and have jammed ever since. This year (2019) we finally decided this is so awesome we have to make more time throughout the year and so 'The Software Jam' was born. We are two friends that love playing together and haven't let distance stop us! We have a few events booked each year but mainly create awesome harp jam videos from across the sea... https://www.thesoftwarejam.com Fran Barsby https://www.franbarsbyharpist.co.uk Tamsin Dearnley http://tamsindearnley.co.uk |
Time: 6:30pm
Location: The Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick |
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Medieval Inspire Weekend
with Bill Taylor What a fantastic day we have had.
Bill introduced our budding adult group to the world of Medieval Harp and wire strung harp. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed looking at the ancient ways of writing music and Bill was a kind a patient teacher. Everyone walked away knowing two new pieces and all about the alternate harp world of the medieval harps. Bill is a fantastic teacher, kind and patient - we all loved working with him. |
Location: PoppyHarp Showroom, Warwick
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Inspire Day with Sioned Williams
"Here are some photos from yesterday’s Poppy Harp Inspire Day in Warwick. Fran Barsby is totally wonderful.. she hosts the friendliest, most colourful (look at her vibrant shop!) harp days. I spent a happy hour telling tales of my harping life and playing a selection of harp solos to a most generous audience. Then, room re-set, some of Fran’s students played to me, and I gave whatever words of encouragement I could to them. It was great to have them work in a non-competitive, happy environment, and some even played their own little compositions. The young players also drew photos of what they were thinking of as others played their pieces—and we had fun.
Thank you Fran for a wonderful day, a kind audience and receptive students, and a bright bunch of flowers is now taking pride of place in my living room to remind me of happy times! Anyone in Warwick should pop in on Fran, whose bright shop window is full of everything ‘ harpy’. You will find a warm welcome." - Sioned Williams |
Location: PoppyHarp Showroom, Warwick
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Jess Hartshorn
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Concert programme:
1. The First Noel 2. Islay Jig 3. Miss A. Kingsnorth of Temple 4. Ding Dong Merrily on High 5. Glenlivet 6. Jingle Bells 7. Baroque Flamenco |
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Saturday 15th December 2018
St Nicholas Church, Warwick. 5:30pm 
The PoppyHarpers 2018
Evie Davis, Teagan Eivers, Jessica Hartshorn, Caitlin Liew, Tamira Surendra-Kumar, Imme Toft, Willow Whitley Special thanks to Lucy Bishop, Anne Clarke Conducted by Fran Barsby |
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Thursday 29th November 2018Warwick Victorian Evening
What a lovely evening introducing people to the harp! Selling cute Christmas gifts and enjoying all the costumes!
We are looking forward to next year! |
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We were lucky enough to have the incredible Amy Turk visit the PoppyHarp showroom for a 'Couch Concert and Cake' on 10th November 2018. If you missed it we have a few videos for you here but make sure you don't miss it next time it was fantastic!
Thank you for coming Amy! We hope you will come again soon for another masterclass and lessons! Youtube/amyturkharp |
Couch Concert and Cake
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Couch Concert and Cake
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Inspire day
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Couch Concert and Cake with
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Thank you so much to Erica for coming and delighting our audience with an eclectic mix of pieces showing us the true versatility of the harp.
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Pilgrim Harps
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PoppyHarp Student Concert |
Saturday, 9th June 2018
4pm - 5pm PoppyHarp Showroom, Warwick Well done to all of the students who performed so beautifully at todays concert! Concert ProgrammeLavenders Blue - Chloe Whitehall
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Couch Concert and Cake
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Couch Concert and Cake with
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Concert ProgrammeMay Pole
Charge of the light brigade Foreign Halls Dune Sculpture Waltz Sunday Morning Edge of the earth Macalania Into the woods |
Hidden Gem ConcertSaturday January 7th 2018
5:30pm - 7:30pm Lord Leycester Hospital Review by Paul Lewis
For the third consecutive year, the indefatigable Fran Barsby, harpist, proprietor of PoppyHarps harp shop and music publishing company, website designer and all-round human whirlwind, has masterminded and carried off with her usual panache the Future Blend Project, a competition for new harp music culminating in the Hidden Gems Concert at the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick on January 7th. The raison d'être of the Future Blend competition is to encourage composers to write for the harp, an instrument which sadly many composers find daunting. For a surprisingly modest fee composers can submit works from which each year's judges and harpists draw up a shortlist, on this occasion from over two hundred submissions, whereupon each composer on the shortlist is paired with one of a group of volunteer harpists who then collaborates with his or her allocated composer to discuss harp writing, make any necessary adjustments to the music and finally perform it in the Hidden Gems Concert. |
10am - 4pm - "Come and Try the Harp"
Thank you to Pilgrim Harps for coming along to this years Future Blend Project and providing harps for the general public to try. It was an incredible day and we inspired so many people to start the harp. Photography by Alistair Barnsley
Photography by David Rann
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PoppyHarp's Opening Christmas Concert and Cake
Saturday 9th December 2017 - 4pm
What a way to celebrate opening.
A huge congratulations and well done to all our fantastic harp students that performed. Concert Programme: Chloe: Twinkle Twinkle Laura: Lisa Lan Marie: Islay Jig Stephie: King Carol: Gabriel's Oboe and Arabian Dance Elpie: Mountain Stream Tegan: Fiesta Jess Z: Barn Dance Memory and Midnight Stars Emily-Rose: Silent Night Tamira: Islay Jig and Jingle Bells Chloe and Caitlin: Jingle Bells Flute and Harp Duet Jess H: Barn Dance and Back in Time |
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We are delighted to announce that due to the success of our harp studio we are hoping to move to a larger location soon!
This also means we will be extensively expanding our stock. However this does mean our hours in the harp studio will significantly reduce over the next month. If you would like to visit please contact us to ensure we will be available. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. What the new shop will bring: - New harps to try! - Flexible trial hours. - Flexible tuition hours. - Handmade harp gifts. |
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PoppyHarp Company Director and Pilgrim Harps Resident Harpist, Fran Barsby performed a collection of her favourite music to showcase the flexibility and versatility of these harps.
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Warwickshire's flourishing young harpists performed an eclectic mix of beautiful harp music. A very big well done and congratulations to all of our performers:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star performed by Louisa Day Own composition and Winstors Gallop performed by Emily Speller Barn Dance and Sound of the Trumpets performed by Martha Aldridge Hippopotamus Rag and Mountain Stream performed by Eve Woodcock Barn Dance Memory and The Purple Bamboo performed by Megan Collyer Celtic Air performed by Liz Boxall Passing By performed by Marie Bawden Own composition performed by Laura Bawden Theme from Up performed by Imme Toft Barn Dance Memory, Sound of the Trumpets and The Purple Bamboo performed by Elspeth Martin Own composition performed by Abigail Wilkinson Sarabande and Flowing by Caitlin Hughes performed by Caitlin Hughes King by Years and Years, Duet performed by Stephanie Varney MacLeod Sound of the Trumpets, Merry Go Round and Midnight Stars, The Cockle-Gatherer performed by Caitlin Liew |
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What a fantastic first concert of the year. Well done to everyone involved!
Performers: Liz Boxall, Marie Bawden, Laura Bawden, Caitlin Liew, Elspeth Martin, Megan Collyer, Louisa Day, Caitlin Hughes, Martha Aldridge, Eden Iles, Emily Speller, Willow Whitley, Eve Woodcock, Abigail Wilkinson, Stephanie Varney Macloed and Imme Toft. |
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It was lovely to spend a day with hundreds of harpists at the Birmingham Conservatoire Harp day at Birmingham University. Well done Natasha for all your hard work organising everything! It was fantastic.
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The Future Blend Project launched in 2015.
It is a annual competition that brings composers and harpists together to create brand new music for the Harp. 10 finalists are chosen from annonymous scores, they then have 5 months to work with their harpist to create the best piece possible for the instrument. The Hidden Gem Concert in the first week of January is the showcase and World Premier of these 10 new works. 'FBP' helps to increase the amount of music composed for the harp and is inspired by the difficult path young professional musicians and composers face in order to succeed in the music industry. The Future Blend Project Best Collaboration Award Winner 2016/2017 Ivory. COMPOSER: ANTHONY GREEN. HARPIST: OLIVIA JAGEURS 4 Runner Up Awards The Child at Sunset COMPOSER: BEN YEE-PAULSON HARPIST: ERICA SINCLAIR NESHAMA Composer: Alexandra Coursen HARPIST: OLIVIA JAGEURS It was snowing butterflies. COMPOSER: NATHAN JAMES DEARDEN. HARPIST: SOPHIE ROCKS Haiku for Calumet Street. COMPOSER: ARTHUR KEEGAN-BOLE. HARPIST: SOPHIE ROCKS Finalists Resonances. COMPOSER: ROB CREHAN. HARPIST: KINGA WAS Tiento y Toccata. Composer: Mauricio Cristales Armas. HARPIST: CATRIN MEEK Pop Suite. Composer: Carlos Dos SantosHARPIST: VERA KHAIT Cyber Lullaby Composer: Stanislav Fridman. HARPIST: Dep - Erica Sinclair The Awakening. COMPOSER: CLAUDIO PASSILONGO. HARPIST: Dep - Fran Barsby Suite pour Harpe COMPOSER: LOUIS SAUTER. HARPIST: RITA SCHINDLER Hybrid States. Composer: Zoran Scekic HARPIST: VERA KHAIT In a Minor Groove COMPOSER: ROB SEIBERT Harpist: Natasha Gale |
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9th January 2016
The Old Library, The Custard Factory, Birmingham. B9 4AA |
