Zuzanna tuning up ready for her Drake Chamber Music performance in Glasgow earlier this year
Something a bit different today! Still harp-related of course, and still on the subject of arrangements, but still different.
My dear friend and fellow harpist Zuzanna Olbryś has launched a fantastic collection of Polish Christmas Carols , which she has arranged for beginner harpists.
This publication is a wonderful addition to the usual Christmas repertoire, and I’ve loved reading through her book and discovering some beautiful new melodies. In fact I enjoyed them so much, I’ll be sharing one of them during my Facebook Live concert on Christmas Eve.
She has also written a little bit about each carol underneath the music which is a really unique touch.
Zuzanna is an incredible harpist and teacher, and her website is a very comprehensive resource for all harpists. Among many other things, each week she does a live lesson via Facebook which is then published on her website, covering all manner of topics suitable for beginners and experienced harpists alike.
I caught up with Zuzanna earlier this week for a Zoom chat about this new publication, and because December 6th is a very important date in Poland which she tells us about in the video below. We spoke about what prompted her to start this project and about her plans for Christmas. There’s also a discount code for the Carols which she has kindly shared in the video, and the link to buy the carols is included below.
A wee note re the video - we were excited to see each other at the start, so we did talk over each other just a little at the very beginning before we settled down!
The carols are available on Zuzanna’s website via the link below, and she has very generously given us a discount code STAR2019 for 15% off this publication, valid until December 8th (this coming Sunday) if you’d like to buy the carols yourself.
The carols come as a download which you can either print yourself or use on an iPad or similar.
http://www.zuzanna-harpist.com/product/polish-christmas-carols/
The melodies are wonderful for beginner harpists, but also they’re easy and hugely enjoyable to sight read or improvise over for more advanced harpists - they can of course be made as elaborate as you like. I think my tired fingers will be glad of the easier versions as we get deeper into December!
A huge thank you to Zuzanna for telling us about the carols, and of course for giving us the discount code too. We hope you enjoy them.