14th Annual Harpers' Escape Weekend

Instructors  (from left: Debbie Brewin-Wilson, Bridget Highet, Grainne Hambly and Kathy DeAngelo) Debbie Brewin-Wilson and Kathy DeAngelo created The Harpers Escape Weekend. We are experienced performers and teachers of the harp and conducted all the workshops at The Harpers Escape for the first seven years. We have since added Bridget Highet and Grainne Hambly, two instructors who are terrific, to meet our goal of keeping the workshops small and personal while responding to feedback to expand the playing levels for attendees.

Debbie Brewin-Wilson plays traditional Scottish as well as contemporary folk music; she also writes songs. She lives and teaches harp in Ocean County, NJ. Debbie has performed at the Mine Street Coffeehouse, the Minstrel Show Coffeehouse, the Bonnie Brae Scottish Festival, and has organized harpers' circles at local folk festivals. Debbie three CDs:  Dream of Caledonia,  Roots and Wings  and her recent Christmas CD Love Came Down at Christmas. All contain traditional music as well as her own compositions. She also recorded Harpers Escape Ten Years of Tunes CD. She has published two books on the music of Robert Burns arranged for harp. For more information on Debbie Brewin-Wilson, please click here.

Kathy DeAngelo has been performing traditional Irish music for more than 25 years. She's a multi-instrumentalist who started playing harp in 1984. She performs with McDermott's Handy and has played extensively throughout the tri-state region. She teaches harp and fiddle in County Camden, NJ. She and her husband Dennis Gormley host a long-running Irish seisiun in Haddonfield. Kathy has been a major catalyst for popularizing the harp in the Philadelphia area. She directs the Delaware Valley Celtic Harp Orchestra and organizes performances for the Next Generation in Philadelphia. Many of her students have taken titles at the mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil and gone on to compete in Ireland.  Kathy's recordings include Come Take the Byroads with McDermott's Handy and the Harpers Escape Ten Years of Tunes CD, which also has a companion music book. She also recorded  a Christmas album, O Come Little Children with The Merrie Mates.  She recently started her own company, You Gotta Have Harp Productions, which represents harp-playing artists. In addition to the Harpers Escape, Kathy helped to create a harp camp at West Chester University this year, taught workshops at the Somerset Harp Conference, and taught harp at the Irish Arts Week in the Catskills.

Grainne Hambly, an internationally recognized Irish harper, will be teaching a master class at The Harpers Escape Weekend in one of the few workshops she will be doing on the East Coast during her 2006 US Tour. She is also now touring with Scottish harper William Jackson as Masters of the Celtic Harp. She is an original member of the Belfast Harp Orchestra and had been its principal harper. She was the senior All-Ireland harp (and concertina) champion in 1994 and has won the prestigious Keadue and Granard harp competitions as well. Grainne is a certified harp teacher in Ireland and has taught countless workshops and toured in the US, Europe and Scandinavia.  She has done numerous recordings, including her latest solo CD "Golden Lights and Green Shadows", and her first CD "Between the Showers." She also has  2 books of her arrangements, many from her CD, called Traditional Irish Music arranged for Harp and Traditional Irish Music arranged for Harp Vol. 2. Read more about Grainne on her website at http://grainne.harp.net.

Bridget Highet is a well-traveled, accomplished and champion harper. She has placed first in the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil multiple times as well as in the National Scottish Clarsach Championship and placed third in the All-Ireland in 2001 in the harp, 15-18 category. She has performed at a number of festivals, including the Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival and the Washington Irish Festival.  Last year, Bridget was a featured soloist at the annual American Harp Society Conference in Philadelphia.  Bridget has taught workshops at the Irish Week at the Augusta Heritage Center, the Somerset Harp Festival, and has had award winning private students.  She was a student of Kathy DeAngelo. In addition to her harp playing, she is a student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.  Bridget will be conducting one of the intermediate-level classes at The Harpers Escape Weekend.. Her website is http://www.maidinworks.com.

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