Today's audio comes from the Kristianstad Harp Ensemble recording Om du vore vännen min.
• 7:15 a.m. — Traditional Swedish arranged by Susan Enochsson Syverson: Emigrantsvisa
• 7:15 p.m. — Swedish folk song arranged by Susan Enochsson Syverson: Jag vet en dejlig rosa
Last autumn, Susan Enochsson Syverson was visiting America from Kristianstad, Sweden when she happened to hear School Spotlight on Classical MPR. Intrigued, she submitted a CD of her harp ensemble, a group of seven girls aged 13-19, plus herself. The group was formed in 2005 at the Community Music School in Kristianstad, and meets one hour per week as a group whilst each member has individual weekly lessons with Enochsson Syverson. They primarily perform on lever harps and draw their literature mainly from arrangements of Scandanavian and Celtic traditional music, created by Enochsson Syverson.
School music in Sweden is an after school activity funded by municipalities, and requires fees for voluntary attendance and participation in lessons and ensembles. However, the harp is an expensive instrument and one that is not played by many people. The Kristianstad Community Music School understands the value of this instrument enough that they have purchased school harps for students to use in their first years of lessons. As well as having loaner harps on hand, the students have had many fantastic performance and travel opportunities in the last decade. They've played in castles and festivals in Sweden and beyond, including in Scotland at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival (they've been invited back there next month). In addition to performing back home at the Isidors Kulle Festival and Wasa Lodge American Day, the ensemble has performed in front of their Majesties, King Carl-Gustav and Queen Silvia. The monarchs attended a symphony concert last May, of which the harp ensemble was a part, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Kristianstad. Next month, half the ensemble will perform at a dinner for the European Handball Association, which will be televised across Europe.
Over the years, playing in the Kristianstad Harp Ensemble has created a tight-knit group of girls, some of who would not otherwise have had opportunities to travel outside Sweden. Two of these girls have even gone on to Conservatory in Ireland and Scotland to study harp. Enochsson Syverson maintains that these opportunities have widened the perspective of every girl and also made them international and ethically conscious world citizens.
The ensemble recently further widened their global perspective when Enochsson Syverson invited Basel Sara, a refugee from the Syrian conflict to give a master class. With a DMA in Harp from St. Petersburg Conservatory, he was teaching harp at Damascus Conservatory when his house and harps were bombed two and a half years ago. Forced to rely on human smugglers and crossing the sea in a small boat to escape, he has been living near Stockholm for six months now. After two years without a harp, he is now equipped with one gifted by Salvi harps and private donors. With all of his repertoire stored in his memory, he has now began to rebuild his life with music.
Enochsson Syverson is thrilled that Sara's master class was a really inspirational moment for her students as they came to understand how a music can be used an instrument in international communication and understanding. Based on Sara's experience, they learned a) how valuable it is to have a harp, b) how valuable it is to live in safety, and c) how a skill of playing an instrument is something that no one can take from you. Sara is literally coming back to life by playing his harp again. "The harp is to music what music is to life," Enochsson Syverson once heard a harpist say, and it's clear from this story that music can transcend all barriers.
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