Postcard from Santa Barbara

Adam Christensen (harpwire@netcom.com)
Thu, 11 Jan 1996 16:24:56 -0800 (PST)

Dear Friends of the Folk Harp,
Kim Robertson's candlelight acoustic concert in Santa Barbara on
Saturday evening, January 6 was a dream. Santa Barbara had been hit
pretty hard by a gale on New Year's eve and fallen trees and Spanish
tiles still littered the city as the clean-up and reparation was underway
the first week of the year.
The Sanctuary is a beautiful Spanish style church a few blocks
from Folk Mote Music, with a fountain and courtyard and seating for 275
people. Its sanctuary and nave are tiled in small octagonal tiles and the
sound soars naturally in the arching space.
Blue-purple irises and star lilies were arranged on either side of Kim Robertson and Virginia Kron, the
cellist from Ojai who appears on Kim's "Gratitude" and "Celtic Christmas"
recordings. The nave was lit with over a hundred candles that flickered
gently as members of the audience came in and found their seats, some of
them bringing small votive candles themselves to add to the bouquet of
little lights placed on the steps that led to the raised stage area.
Dispensing with an emcee, Kim began the concert with music from
her new "Treasures of the Celtic Harp" including the koto-inspired
"Boundless" which one reviewer has described as "Jimi Hendrix meets the
Tang dynasty" :) ... For two forty-five minute sets Kim played her
wonderful music for an entranced audience which had filled the sanctuary
and the balcony. The cello's soul-stirring sounds rose through the music
of Faure's "Pavane", the Scottish "Wild Mountain Thyme", "Martyn Wynd's
Air", and, of course, "Gratitude." Virginia's Bach solo was moving and
poignant.
Kim closed her concert with a rendition of "The Water is Wide"
and encored with an instrumental version of "Silent Night" which segued
into an a capella vocalise version joined by the audience. The sanctuary
gleamed with light and calmness and the gale winds of a few nights before
were surely forgotten in the effulgent atmosphere of music.
Kim later joined everyone next door for the old-fashioned tea
and dessert reception. It was a lovely sight to see everyone carrying
their candles from the church across the lawn to the reception, and
reminded me of the closing scenes from Disney's "Fantasia" where the
little beings are walking across the bridge of dawn. The peace and
euphoria that the music had brought was in everyone's faces and starlight
seemed to have touched the earth that night for a few hours.

* * *

Folk Mote Music now has its domain account *and* a web-page. To
email Folk Mote Music, please contact Nadine and Cherie at
<folkmote@folkmote.com>... They'll be able to point you to the web site.

* * *

The next day, on Sunday morning, Bruce and Sylvia Fellows were
taken out to brunch to celebrate and honor their ten years of devotion
and service to the ISFHC. It was a bright sunny morning and we gathered
at the Harbor Restaurant where we could see the beautiful water of the
Pacific and the boats undulating in the distance. Their children, Erin
and Tamara, were like a pair of gelflings as they played with the purple
wool beret Sylvia had knitted over the weekend. We were joined by Terri
Skeoch from Sylvia Woods Harp Center. Phyllis Robinson and Betty
Truitt had driven all the way from Mt. Laguna for Kim's concert and the
honorary brunch.
Sylvia was presented with a beautiful crystal Celtic harp from
Ireland's Waterford crystal factory, and with a small wooden Christmas
harp ornament from Hilliard Stone of Texas. It was fun to watch the
excitement build as Sylvia slowly opened her package. Terri took pictures
and we'll probably share it in the journal sometime soon.

* * *

Later that afternoon, we had our first ISFHC board meeting and
Jane Valencia called about five minutes into the meeting to say hello and
let everyone know she was available if we needed her input. The meeting
went really well and things got done and discussed with thoughtfulness
and humor. Even though our officers and board of directors members are in
a state of re-distributing the tasks of our society, things went fairly
easily and we discovered that we didn't have to
re-invent the wheel or figure out the universe in one afternoon. :)

Our new board will be in discussion on-line and will make
decisions over the first weekend of each month. In effect, we'll be in
discussion continuously as topics are introduced and various matters
arise which need the board's attention. Members of the ISFHC on this list
are welcome to email the board to include topics for each month's agenda.
The decisions will be bundled four times a year and printed in the journal.
All of our reports and minutes will be available on-line at some point
and both regional directors and chapter representatives will be sent
board materials regularly. It's certainly a brave new world.

Many thanks to everyone on the list who has helped or volunteered
for our society. We had over 1700 members during 1995 and interest in the
folk harp is strong and growing.

with a grace-note or two and best wishes for 1996 in all your endeavors,

Adam

* Adam Christensen * Folk Harp Journal *
* Chris Gilson * Parma Eldalamberon * The Book of Elven Tongues *
* 500-C North Civic Drive * Walnut Creek CA 94596 * USA *
* Tel. 510-933-1749 * harpwire@netcom.com *

"Let us find the music that is the mirror of our hearts."