The advanced class will put fingers to strings learning new tunes, playing as an ensemble, and working on creative arrangements.

We will spend part of our day together looking at your own music, so bring one or a few particular pieces that you would like coaching with for new arranging ideas, ease of playing, or for performance-type "polishing".

With all of our playing we will work on and talk about technique, musicality, creativity, personal playing style, playing faster, rhythm, control, dynamics, tone, and all with an emphasis on playing with effortlessness, beauty and relaxation.

But mostly... we will simply have fun hanging out together and playing our harps for five wonderful days in the mountains.

Sharlene Wallace started her journey with the folk harp in Wells over fifteen years ago, and has returned many of those years to teach all levels of harp playing. Previously to playing the folk harp, Sharlene studied pedal harp with Judy Loman and continues today to perform equally on both instruments. She has won two international competitions, the Lyon & Healy International Pop & Jazz Lever Harp Competition (Tucson, Arizona) and Concours d’Improvisation de Rencontres Internationales de Harpe Celtique (Dinan, France). She tours internationally giving concerts, workshops, masterclasses and adjudicating, as well as performing with bass player George Koller, flute/piano player Susan Piltch and BC accordion/fiddle player Adrian Dolan amongst others. Sharlene has created five independent CDs, "the rhyme & the river", "Journey of Shadows", "Beyond the Waves", "Island Mountain"… and "Anticipation", a collaboration with Susan Piltch. As well as writing many pieces for harp, Sharlene has been involved in numerous commissions for the Celtic harp by such Canadian composers as John Beckwith, Bruce Mather, Nancy Telfer, Evelyne Datl, Loretto Reid, Kirk Elliott and Rodney Sharman. Sharlene teaches both Celtic and Classical harp at York and Guelph Universities and is Principal Harpist with the Oakville and Kingston Symphonies. www.sharlenewallace.com