Cromarty Harp Village

Friday 20 - Sunday 22 September 2024

The long-running Cromarty Harp Village is a two-day weekend of harp and clarsach music in the vibrant, coastal Highland town of Cromarty. You can stay with us or if you are local, come along to the individual workshops, meals and mass harp playing session. 

A weekend packed with workshops with great accommodation and catering, all workshops are in the beautiful, historical building, The Old Brewery overlooking the Cromarty Firth. There are three levels of learning: lower elementary, upper elementary and intermediate/advanced.

This year there will be a focus on getting back to basics, finger coordination, strengthening techniques, making sure we all have a firm base on which to make music. We will focus on gentle, effective warmups, excellent technical exercises and how to adapt them for you and your needs, so you play the music you play the best you can. 

We will reinforce performance techniques, aiding all those niggly issues you may not be able to iron out yourself.  We have the luxury of a small intimate venue, which allows us to have individually tailored sessions.  If you have no tunes under your fingers yet, we will make sure you do by the end of the weekend.

We have three excellent tutors this year in Corrina Hewat, Cheyenne Brown and Heather Yule. They are primed to support and help everyone while also having some fun!  From the very basic issues of learning the harp to the advanced nuances of performance, we can cover all you need.  

All tutors have extensive experience in performance, musical and spoken word collaboration, composition, arranging and decades of tutoring and are a great team!  The opportunity to get together at the Harp Village is a true blessing, and they are all looking forward to spending time with you all.  You can read more about them on the links below.

Heather Yule www.heatheryulepapertales.co.uk/my-story
Cheyenne Brown www.cheyenneharp.com
Corrina Hewat www.corrinahewat.com

The tutors are on hand to be individual tutors or group tutors during the weekend, and once we see who has signed up, we will form the tuition around the participants needs. 

Corrina is preparing the music we will play in the mass harp session on Saturday evening, and you will be sent the music in advance.  The tunes are well-known tunes in the traditional Scottish repertoire, and you are offered the opportunity to play along, or sit and enjoy the music, making the evening a relaxed and fun event.  All participants are invited to bring something to the session to play or sing if they would like, no pressure, but as it is an informal event and a welcoming audience of harpers, it’s a lovely empathetic group to play for. 

In previous Harp Villages, we have taught the aural ‘learning by ear’ method but we understand this does not suit everyone.  For this year’s event, we will have the music at the start of the workshops for those who wish to see it as they learn.

If you have anything you know you need to learn (a tune, a technique you’ve seen or heard) please note it down.  We will take all reasonable requests!

To book download and complete the booking form here or contact the office on info@cromartyartstrust.org.uk  or 01381 600354.