"You can never just have one harp," says Anna O'Connell, and with 14 in her collection, the Cleveland-based harpist and singer proves the point. O'Connell joins Early Music Michigan for a concert titled "Music to Tug at Your Harp Strings" on Sunday, March 1 at 3 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Kalamazoo.
O'Connell speaks with Cara Lieurance alongside Early Music Michigan music director Luke Conklin about the concert, the history of the harp, and the surprisingly varied world of early music performance.
The program centers on O'Connell's playing of an Italian Baroque triple harp — known as the arpa doppia — a three-row instrument typically with gut strings whose middle row functions like the black keys of a piano, providing sharps and flats. She also performs on a Celtic lever harp and sings in Italian, French, and Irish, accompanying herself on harp simultaneously.
The concert takes audiences on a geographic tour of 17th- and 18th-century European music, opening in Italy with a toccata by Trabaci and songs by Francesca Caccini, the daughter of Giulio Caccini and one of the era's notable female composers. The program then moves through France before concluding in the British Isles, where living harp traditions — including the Welsh triple harp — still echo the Baroque era.
Joining O'Connell on stage are a Baroque violinist, a viola da gamba specialist from Illinois, and Conklin himself on Baroque woodwinds including recorder, Baroque oboe, and Baroque flute.
Conklin says he first encountered O'Connell performing with Apollo's Fire baroque orchestra in Cleveland, and was drawn to bring the Baroque harp to Kalamazoo audiences, noting it is rarely heard in the region.
Tickets and details are available at earlymusicmichigan.org.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
