With a sense of déjà vu I am writing a blog post about my harp on New Years Day. This is to launch my participation in the latest GOAT (Grade-One-A-Thon) event entitled GOAT Reunion: Clueless in Competition.
I took part in the 2011 Grade-One-A-Thon working towards and successfully passing my harp grade 1 exam in February 2011. I took part in the Clueless in Concert at the Corn Exchange and had a lot of fun along the way as well as understanding what it is like to have to learn something from the very beginning. Over £80,000 was raised for Spinal Injuries Association. There are no exams this time and particpants have the choice of playing a GOAT instrument from the 2004 or 2011 Grade-One-A-Thons, or they can take up a brand new instrument and learn it to a standard to cope with the performance pieces. The main event is a concert on Sunday 22 February at West Road Concert Hall where all GOATees take part in their respective ensemble. As a string player I will be with the Highly Strung team. I will also be making a guest appearance as solo clarinet with the Long Winded team. Finally Brassed Off complete the line up. Each team performs their piece then the audience decides who is the winner before all three teams join together for the massed ensemble piece. As before there are several groups lined up to recalibrate the audience appreciation of quality music and there will be more about those in future blogs.
The GOAT Committee have chosen Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as a charity well worth supporting. The Ebola virus was one of the worst stories to hit the headlines this year and MSF provided medical aid in western Africa as well as in many remote and dangerous parts of the world. As an independent humanitarian medical aid organisation they are "committed to providing medical aid where it is most needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender and also to raising awareness of the plight of the people we help."
www.msf.org.uk/
I have chosen to continue with the harp as I have put so much time and energy into it since the first rehearsal in January 2011. Music for the concert was sent out just before Christmas and as the GOAT pieces are for grade 1 players I have to confess I did get them to a moderate standard pretty quickly. As well as working on those for a few weeks I have set myself a personal challenge and will be working toward my grade 6 exam. I won't be entering for it this term as this requires some serious practise and dedication that just won't fit with my current lifestyle but the summer term might be a viable option. I will aim to practise every day working on my three pieces, scales, exercises and all the rest. I will also aim to tune my harp a little more frequently and I will aim to cut my nails a few days before they really need it, rather than a few weeks after as is my current habit!
As before any sponsors will have a practise session dedicated to them and they will feature on the blog. My justgiving page is here: www.justgiving.com/Stephanie-Reeve1 or I can add any cash donations to my final total.
Today's practise was a good hour and featured a warm-up picked up from Catrin Finch, some exercises developed from Rohan, my harp teacher, and some pieces written by Danielle Perrett, another harpist whose name I can easily drop into conversation.
Finally here is a festive picture of my practise room:
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