Touch. Move. Inspire. (Newsletter)

LAST WEEKEND:
WGBH Radio Show & TCAN Solo Concert

➤ WGBH Livestream and Podcast is out: YouTube archive  here
➤ New Digital Releases: On Bandcamp here.

Fri. Feb. 6, 2026

Thankyou so much to the hundreds of people who braved the frigid cold last Saturday and filled The Center for Arts in Natick

My coach said to me this week “Look for where you are being touched, moved and inspired in the world – then share that.”

So here I am sharing that YOU touch, move and inspire me in the joy we share through music and stories. Last Saturday it happened in beautifully renovated old firehouse turned into a magical theater – one stage, an incredible sound engineer, lights, amazing volunteers and an audience that transformed a frigid night into human warmth at a level so deep, I’m STILL warm from it. 

With my focus so much on legacy projects in the past few years,  performances in the USA have been rare – but I’m working to change that and last Saturday was pure joy.  From my perspective, I spent two hours with the most inspiring people on the planet: a live audience.

Video clips from that show are coming, thanks to the Clever Mountain video crew, but for now please check out  photos and iphone video clips– with special thanks to Mel Prenovitz who sat with my iphone in the front row and captured the whole show from the audience perspective.

‘Til then — here’s what’s happening … 

TOUCH — Live on WGBH

What is it like to contend with packed snow and 17-degree cold to load two harps in your car, head out in rush hour traffic, and bring it all into the on-air fishbowl live performance studio of WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio” show at one of the world’s most inspiring libraries: The first urban, municipally funded, free public library in the United States. The place where the branch library system and children’s library rooms were invented, the first library to conceive of lending books you can take home.

That’s the Boston Public Library main branch and I was there to do a live radio show with the irrepressible hosts of “Boston Public Radio,” Jim Braude and Margery Eagen – and as luck would have it, the inspiring special guest, Massachusetts governor, Maura Healy.

It was a joy to be there – and I live in a world where the motto is ‘Connection – not perfection” so what stands out to me about last Friday’s adventure with WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio” (which you can watch here) are the connections.

There were public connections, like with Jim Braude, co-host of Boston Public Radio, who I first met decades ago on his “Greater Boston” TV show – and the inspiring Governor Maura Healy who was fielding questions from the audience only moments before I played.

But there were other under-the-radar connections, just as lovely:

A young woman working in the café pulled me aside and whispered, “I LOVE your outfit!” and I whispered back “connect with me at HipHarp.com and I’ll tell you where I got it.”

A reference librarian, seeing me walking thru the library in a faux-leather bustier carrying a harp, pulled me aside, “Do you know about the production room back there? Musicians can schedule sessions there to use all the new electronic equipment.”

Another young girl pulled me aside just before I left, “I’ve always wanted to play the harp – how do I start?”

These are the connections you don’t see on screen, but they make this world of performance rich and warm.

As for perfection? With all that movement between a freezing outdoors and a warm library, keeping a harp in tune was an impossibility, but the beauty was that I could point that out on air and say, “Hear those out-of-tune notes? This is how you know it’s real.”

“That was a brave thing to say!” said a man as I walked by his table after the show. “Thank you!” I answered.

Life is all about connection – not perfection.

Watch and listen here: > WGBH Boston Public Radio Podcast YouTube (Timestamp 2:07:50)

INSPIRE — A Letter from an 11-Year-Old Harpist

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a young harpist in the UK, named Jemima.

“I’m writing a school project about what the greatest piece of music is,” she wrote. “I’ve chosen to write about your concerto Soñando en Español … Would you be able to send me a short line about what inspired you to write the concerto?”

Well, apparently not. Because an hour later, I’d written her a 1200-word narrative.

Feeling hopeless about what I consider my lack of pith-ability, I was berating myself for undisciplined overwriting, when I realized that this wasn’t about Jemima’s schoolwork anymore.

This was an unexpected gift Jemima had sent ME. Jemima had just inspired ME to outline the story I’m developing for a new “Story from the Harp” called “My Life with Jean Jacques Rousseau” that I’ll be premiering at the “One Harp World” conference this summer in Toronto.

The Sung-and-Played-Story is about how an 8-bar minuet in a beginners book of classical pieces inspired my first experience of improv with classical music, evolved into an iconic harp piece that’s performed world-wide, became the foundation of my orchestral debut with the Boston Pops, the centerpiece of my Grammy-Nominated album “Invention & Alchemy” a PBS music special and then expanded into an entire ecosystem of music that expanded that single piece into a 3-movement concerto, a full program of story-driven instrumental harp music – and ultimately an ecosystem of music designed to create access for harpists of every level to performing opportunities including solo performances, chamber ensemble, orchestra – even dance and theater.

But that’s not the end because NOW, that same piece is being adapted for other instruments in a unique historical turn-around where an iconic harp piece is being played in a new adaptation for Bandura, the national instrument of Ukraine.

And all of this from the seed of one little Minuet written by the man whose philosophy inspired the United States Constitution.

It would have taken me weeks to create this outline if that’s what I set out to do, but because there was ONE interested listener I was speaking to, instead of a disembodied, imagined audience for whom I had to be perfect, the story poured out and created the foundation from which I can now construct the whole show.

Thank you for inspiring me, Jemima!

Read what I wrote Jemima: > The story behind Soñando en Español

MOVE — Modal Improv Magic (a New Harp Workshop)

In my un-ending quest to share my joy of improv and musical storytelling with other harp players, I present the NEW and EXPANDED “Modal Improv Magic” Kit – a Book, Workshop & Class debuting Feb. 21st. > Sign up here to get on the First-to-Know list.

‘Til I created the original “Modal Improv Magic” class for the Somerset Harp Festival a few years back, I knew zilch about Modal music. In fact, I took on creating the class in order to learn about Modes – only to be deeply – and surprisingly – moved by the richness I discovered, and how you can use one simple shape to unlock the flavor of every mode.

Now I’m fascinated by the creative opportunities modal playing offers in jazz, blues, storytelling, meditation music and therapeutic improv and excited to be able to offer this class to unlock a new world inside the strings of a harp (and pssst! If you’re a courageous keyboard player – you can adapt this class to the piano – and use ONLY the white keys)

> Get on the First to Know List

See you soon!

P.S. We’ll be sharing clips from the TCAN concert once we get them.

Get updates for my next shows, concerts, and other appearances on my Events Page