Latest Newsletter Issue: May

2013 Scholarship Winners Announced!

May 11: Today's Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil in Parsippany bustled with music in every meeting room in the hotel. The harp competitions were held in Morris 2 and adjudicated by Deidre Danaher. The first place winners in each of the age groups received a scholarship to the Somerset Folk Harp Festival. They are: Emily Safko (under 12), Kristin Ware (12-15) , Kellianne Kornick (15- 18), and Alex Boatright in the senior, over 18.

Scholarship Winners:

On left: Kristin Ware and Kellianne Kornick.
Right: Alex Boatright

March 21: The Somerset Folk Harp Festival announces that it will award scholarships to its festival to the winning participants in the harp competition at the Mid-Atlantic Region Fleadh Cheoil, being in held in Parsippany NJ, on May 11. The competition is adjudicated by Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. "This will be the fifth consecutive year that the festival has offered these awards," says festival director Kathy DeAngelo, "and they're meant to encourage aspiring young harpers to play traditional Irish music." This year the festival is offering a specialty Youth Harp Program, and first place fleadh winners in the 12-15 and 15-18 age groups will be eligible to participate in this program or attend any of its 100+ workshops over the course of its four days. The senior-level harp winner will also be awarded a full-festival admission. The winner of the under 12 competition will be awarded a Saturday festival admission. An accompanying parent/guardian admission is also included in the prize for the juveniles.
The Somerset Folk Harp Festival takes place July 18-21 at the Hilton Parsippany, Parsippany NJ.

2012 Scholarship Winners

May 19, 2012: First place winners in 3 of the harp competitions at the the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh Cheoil in Parsippany received a full festival admission to the festival, along with a non-harping companion. Pictured with festival director Kathy DeAngelo (on the left) are: Kerry White in the 12-15 age group, Kiera McGeever in 15-18, and Katherine Highet in the senior competition. Abigail Gillespie, 2nd place in the 15-18 age group, was also later awarded a scholarship.

April 26, 2012: Kathy DeAngelo, director of the Somerset Folk Harp Festival, has announced that the Somerset scholarships were awarded on April 14 at the Midwest Fleadh Cheoil in Chicago. A full festival ticket for the winner and their companion were awarded to Claire Merriman of Eureka MO for her first place win in the 12-15 age group. , Natalie O’Loughlin of Webster Groves, MO won in the 15-18 group and Shannon Kelly of St. Louis, MO came in first at the senior level (over 18). The competition was adjudicated by noted Irish harper Grainne Hambly. Besides their Somerset scholarships, the winners are entitled to compete in the All-Ireland competition later this summer in Cavan, Ireland. Congratulations to the winners!

Harp Groups and Circles can lead a jam, set up a meeting space
If you're a member of a harp group or harp circle and you want to reach out to potentially new members while you're at Somerset, we're going to make it easier to connect. Contact me to lead a "meet & greet" harp circle one of the evenings after the concert or perhaps during the lunch hour. We have plenty of space available for afernoon or late-night jams and we'll get your group's jam listed in the daily schedule of events. We'd like to have the friendly and experienced players among you coax along the shy and less experienced harpers or newbies wanting to connect up with people from their area. If you have a group that just wants to meet up, ask me to arrange a meeting space for you. I'm happy to do it.

We have a number of generous vendors who are making a small number of small harps available at no cost for the temporarily harpless. So if you're coming to the festival by plane or train and can't bring your harp with you, we will have a harp pool available. Come to the registration desk and sign out a harp for the day. Our friends at the Virginia Harp Center and Sligo Harps put quite a few harps in the pool last year as well as several on our staff who brought extra harps. How nice!