Harping On Top of the World
When my family and I lived for a few years in Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada’s Arctic, I felt like I was living on “Top of the World”.
Though for work, we went primarily for the sense of adventure, and came to appreciate the great beauty of the North. Dog sledding made for winter excursions onto the sea ice and into the rolling, snow covered valleys. We’d stop for a hot cup of tea, and listen to “nothing”, except for the actual sound of a snowflake falling on the hood of one’s parka! In the summer I rafted from the top of a mountain range in the interior of Baffin Island, and for seven days paddled, camped and trekked in the “awesome quietude” surrounding the river as it slowed and became broader in its approach to the sea. Peace and solitude, when not paddling, was found in writing, reading, and playing music on a small recorder that I had packed.
Back in town, entertainment was found in dinner parties and gatherings, when friends dragged out their instruments. For me, moving a grand piano to the Arctic had its challenges, so instead, a small Celtic Harp became my chosen instrument. Who would have thought in one small neighbourhood there lived three former orchestral oboists - no immediate demand for that work, but there was the need for music, the learning of new instruments, and the forming of “eclectic” musical groups and ensembles. Strapping a Celtic Harp onto the back of a “komatik” (sled) to go to a gig was well worth the time filling a quiet winter’s night with music, and the “joy of making music together!”
When I returned “South” to Manitoba, I returned with a new “magic” founded on these experiences of making music, and filling “empty spaces”, away from noise and distraction. I had also found a new, passionately insistent musical voice, in playing the harp.
In time, my husband designed a teaching/performance venue in a hundred year old Bank building. The space has allowed me to teach privately but also hold group piano classes, harp circles and festivals, as well as host small concerts. The bonus however, has been the bank vault; my private, absolutely quiet, sanctuary, where I can literally leave the world, sit down at my harp and transport myself to wherever I need “to be”. And where I can conjure up by thought and memory the power of place and space, and the pure pleasure of playing a musical instrument.