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About My Harp Making...    

     I have been building harps since 1979, first for myself to play, and then for other people starting in 1984. My first harp was a replica of the “Queen Mary”, a Scottish medieval bronze-strung instrument. A few years later I wanted to move into nylon strung models, and had been mostly building these up to 2005, when I revamped the whole line of harps to reflect more modern technology in strings and levers, as well as a return to the traditional round back body design that is lighter and more comfortable for the player.

A big influence on my early instrument making was Dennis Waring. (Ph.D. Ethnomusicology) who was writing a book on making folk instruments when I first met him in 1977. He kindly let me look over his shoulder, help out with projects and unselfishly shared his knowledge and enthusiasm for folklore and folk instruments with myself and all who came to him for instruction. Here's his website: http://www.WaringMusic.com .

Lately, Rick Kemper, of Silver Spring, Maryland, has given me great deal of assistance in making the round-back harp body shells for my harps. Rick has an excellent on-line instruction manual called 'Building the Lever Harp'. Here's the link: http://www.sligoharps.com/btlh.html .

     Over the years, I have attended numerous folk harp conferences and festivals in the United States, Canada, Ireland & Scotland as a participant. Then I started exhibiting my harps out of province in 2001, and since then I've exhibited at the Banff (Alberta) Harp Festival, the Somerset Folk Harp Festival (NJ) and HarpCon 2003 in Bloomington, IN, Big Sky Folk Harp Festival, MT, San Jose Folk Harp Festival, WAFHS Getaway (Harpers Ferry, WV) and to the Southeastern Harp Weekend in Ashville, NC. Please see my Exhibition Schedule Page for up coming festivals where I'll be exhibiting. This year I'll also be in Ireland for the Fleadh in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, to watch some of my harp owners compete at the All-Ireland Competitions.

    My harps are found coast to coast in Canada, the USA and now Ireland. As well, I continue to work with top players to develop harps especially suited to traditional music styles, and develop unique and beautiful instruments that will be a treasure for years to come. 

....and playing

    Folklore and traditional music has been a great interest of mine since we lived in Hawaii when I was a kid, and in 1983 I became a self-employed performer and instrument maker, as well as an educator in the Artists-In-The-Schools programs of Manitoba and a number of Florida counties. In the course of time I developed a number of one-man shows to fill out the scope of my interests (and to support three kids). 

    However, my passion for playing the harp grew to the extent that I wanted to attend harp festivals and study the harp outside my home province of Manitoba. Consequently, my first trip overseas to study the harp was in 1989, when I attended Scoil Eigse (Traditional Music School) at the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann (All-Ireland Music Festival) in Sligo, Ireland. My harp teacher was Eimer ni Brion, All-Ireland gold medal winner for 1988, and my vocal teacher was the late Paddy Tunny.