My dear friends, colleagues and music lovers,
Thank you for stopping by! I wanted to take this moment to re-introduce myself and share a bit about what I do, the projects I have going on and what’s happening.
Musically speaking, I am so happy to say that there is a lot of great stuff on the horizon. I am thrilled to be able to continue working with groups like the Turning Point Ensemble, the Vancouver Opera, No-Chamber and of course, many of my own groups and solo endeavours. Being a freelance musician certainly has lots of challenges but one of the greatest rewards is the incredible diversity and range of experiences that I get to have.
Here is some information on some upcoming and incredibly diverse work:
Like most musicians, I have been performing for most of my life. My earliest form of gigging started with weddings when I was just nine years old. By the time I was thirteen years old, my parents were driving me to at least one wedding a weekend. I still have the little book where my mom diligently wrote in all of the details for the couple: where, when, what songs they would like and how many bridesmaids they had. Thankfully, today my couples have more song choices than they did back then! I know that it was so challenging to have to postpone weddings for couples during Covid but my silver lining is that I love playing weddings again. The joy, love and gathering of family and friends is so beautiful and I enjoy adding a little extra to that special day.
Here is me at my very first paid gig which was a wedding:
The harp has been in so many scenes of movies and tv shows in the last two years. Why you ask? Because the harp is awesome! I have seen it in countless scenes in Bridgerton (I love how they take popular music from today and make it classical or Baroque style- this is one of my favourite things to do!), in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, in scenes of Money Heist, in Never Have I Ever and so many more! The result is people realizing how much the harp can add to any event! And if you want to go Bridgerton style, I play with incredible musicians who play the flute, violin, cello and more so we can create an incredible sound for your event! Here is a harp and flute duet with the beautiful, Erin Marks:
Something that gives me great joy is solo or chamber music concerts. This coming year, there is already so much booked to look forward to! If you are in BC but not living around the Lower Mainland, I might have a concert for you! If you are in the Gulf Islands, I am playing for the Pender Island Concert Society on November 20th and for the Fanny Bay Community Association on February 25th. For both of these concerts, I plan on showing my audiences what the harp can do! Is the harp ethereal, beautiful, relaxing and enjoyable? Yes. Is it also a diverse instrument capable of a wide range of dynamics, sounds, genres and interest? YES!
Here are two of my favourite pieces to perform:
Sizing up a bit are the ensembles I play with or the ones that I run with different incredible musicians. My group, The Nadeau Ensemble: A Prairie Christmas has a show on the Sunshine Coast with the Pender Harbour Music Society on December 11th. After being postponed for two years by Covid, I am so happy to be dipping our toes back in the water with this warm crowd. We will likely be having more concerts but we are waiting to see what the government recommendations are at that time and we will go from there! I will be playing another Christmas show with the No-Chamber ensemble with my long-time friends and colleagues: Jeremy Berkman on trombone and Laura Vanek on flute. Joining us is the incredible jazz vocalist, Jennifer Scott. We will be playing two premieres of pieces written for our ensemble!
Here we are playing some music for the north shore community in the forest:
And here is how Christmas music can sound with flute, trombone and harp!:
Laura and I also have a duet where we have been doing recordings and concerts and have even made it into another permutation of The Nadeau Ensemble for the Oceanside Classical Concert Series in Parksville this past spring with Jonathon Lo on cello. As there is very little repertoire for our instrumentation, these fine musicians and I arranged much of the concert which was a thrill!
A super fun project that has emerged this year has been making music with my friend and fellow harpist, Lani Krantz. We performed as a duo and as a trio with percussionist extraordinaire Raphael Geronimo. Lani and I have bonded for years over our mutual pull toward certain kinds of music, improvisation, chart reading and having fun while doing it. We both have young children, so we share so much commonality and are always looking for ways to play together!
Check out this clip of one of our rehearsals. As you can see, we love to take our favourite things, and turn them on their heads!
For Large ensemble, my two favourite organizations that I get to regularly work for are the Vancouver Opera and the Turning Point Ensemble. I am pleased to say that following auditions for the Vancouver Opera, I am now officially the second harpist after being the Acting Principle Harpist for a number of years. I will be playing in Pearl Fishers in October, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in February and the Flying Dutchman in May at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. As for the Turning Point Ensemble, there is a concert in September, we are working with new composers throughout the year and we will be playing for Sonic Boom in May!
One of my favourite projects that I did in the past two years was with Turning Point for the 1+1+1 project. They asked one musician to work with one composer to create one video. I chose Dorothy Chang as my composer as I love the way she writes for my instrument. She is delicate yet strong, complex yet unafraid to simplify. She composed an incredible piece called “Shelter” which encapsulates the idea that in life, sometimes there are moments of complete chaos and madness, yet there are windows of stillness and beauty. Please visit this website to see the trailer of “Shelter” along with all the other videos. If you like what you see, you can watch the full videos by following the instructions on the site: 1+1+1 Turning Point Ensemble.
And if any of this sounds exciting to you, please have a look at my calendar page to see if there is anything that you would like to (or can) attend here: Calendar. Or if you have any questions or requests for bookings, please click here, fill out the form and I look forward to connecting with you!
Thank you for taking the time to hang out here and to get acquainted with what I do!