Yorkshire Harpist – Angelina

My name is Angelina and I have been a Yorkshire harpist specialising in weddings for many years. I’m based in York and mainly cover the Yorkshire area. If you are looking for more information about having harp music at your wedding, keep reading…

Every wedding is special and unique, and I will help you create the perfect atmosphere with my harp playing.

What part of my wedding should I have harp music for?

That is completely up to you! There are plenty of options. I can play for your Wedding Ceremony, which creates a beautiful, elegant atmosphere. You would choose your entrance and exit music, something for before the ceremony, and during the register-signing. I am happy to provide ideas if you would like me to!

Some couples want background harp music for their Drinks Reception, which is the part of the wedding after the Ceremony but before everyone sits down to eat. Harp music sets the mood perfectly while you and your guests enjoy some drinks and canapés. The wonderful thing about harp music at your wedding is that, not only is the harp beautiful to look at, the sound of the harp is not overpowering. The harp is unlikely to drown out conversation among your guests. The harp is definitely gentle on the ears.

Another option is to have background harp music for your Wedding Breakfast, where I would play while you and your guests enjoy your meal. You can find details of the various packages available here.

On my Youtube channel I have a playlist dedicated to beautiful harp music that is ideal for weddings. You can have a listen here.

Favourite venues for Yorkshire harpist Angelina

Most recently I was invited to play the harp for the wedding of Vicky and David in The Hospitium, a beautiful, historic building nestled in the Museum Gardens in York.

I’m sure every Yorkshire harpist has played here many times. I have been playing for weddings in this venue for years and it is a firm favourite of mine. You can see from the photos just how elegant the space is (especially with my harp set up and ready to go):

a photo of a wedding ceremony venue. A table with flowers is in front of a harp
Yorkshire harpist set up and ready to play in York Hospitium
Yorkshire harpist set up in York Hospitium ready for a wedding ceremony

As ever, thanks for reading. If you’d like to get a quote for me to play for your wedding, drop me an email to angelinaegerton@gmail.com.

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Feed The Birds Harp Cover // Mary Poppins

feed the birds harp cover
Mary Poppins

In a recent twitch stream, a viewer asked if I could play a harp cover of Feed The Birds from Mary Poppins. I have always loved the film, so I immediately downloaded the music and started to learn it.

I am so pleased with the result!

If you enjoy these harp covers of mine, do consider heading over to my YouTube channel and subscribing.

Feed The Birds and other classics…

The wonderful thing about playing songs like Feed The Birds is that everyone knows and loves this music. Last week I had the opportunity to go and play a concert at the home where my father now lives. He is suffering with Alzheimer’s and needs a lot of care these days.

I played a mixture of light classical music that people generally have heard before, things like Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Pachelbel’s Canon in D. There were also some harp covers of Disney songs (including Feed The Birds). I also played some other songs from shows such as Carousel, Cats, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera.

The very energetic piece Harpicide at Midnight by Pearl Chertok was the final piece in my programme. Even though it’s not well-known by non-harpists, everyone enjoys it because it is so jazzy. It really challenges people’s perception of what the harp is capable of.

I can’t believe it’s not Rutter…

In other recent events, I have played for two performances of John Rutter’s Requiem and have another performance lined up for this coming Saturday. It’s not often I’ll get a group of concerts like this, all with the same repertoire. Honestly though, I’m enjoying playing in front of a live audience again so much. The pandemic has taken so much from us, I have only performed a handful of times since March 2020, but hopefully the worst is behind us.

Announcement

I have been doing some work on my website recently, and I now have an online booking system for online harp lessons and online piano lessons.

You can now book in for a free 30-minute consultation if you are considering learning the harp or the piano. click here to find an available time to book in.

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GAME OF THRONES Harp Cover

The latest video on my YouTube channel is a Game of Thrones harp cover.

I recently read A Song of Ice and Fire and watched a few seasons of Game of Thrones for the first time.

game of thrones harp cover

The theme music is so epic I found an arrangement and recorded it for my YouTube channel. Alongside the Game of Thrones harp cover, you can find lots of other covers, as well as various harp pieces that I love.

I actually recorded this video while live-streaming on Twitch. As a musician, I’m so glad I found twitch. I usually live-stream there twice a week, on Wednesday and Sunday evenings for a couple of hours. There’s a lovely community over there and it’s a great place to hang out, chat, practice, and of course, to play some of your requests too.

Due to the pandemic, I’ve been pretty much unable to perform since around February 2020. I find it so special to feel like I’m playing for an audience again. And, because it’s via the internet, I don’t even have to move my harp or drive anywhere. It’s every harpist’s dream!

Post-pandemic

Aside from streaming, I’m happy to say life is getting busy again. I’ve started playing the organ at a nearby village church. I’m definitely not a qualified organist and am learning as I go, but I’m really enjoying it and love spending time in the community this way.

I’ve also just accepted the post of Harp Tutor for Yorkshire Young Musicians. This is a really exciting teaching opportunity and I can’t wait to dive in.

I’ve got lots of ideas for future YouTube videos for my channel, so make sure you are subscribed. If you have any questions about the harp, or any requests for future covers, definitely let me know – I’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, there’s a box on the right hand side of this page where you can sign up to receive these updates in your email inbox. It’s a great way to stay in touch.

p.s. if you enjoyed this video, you’ll enjoy this video of Baby Mine from Dumbo.

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York Wedding Harpist

This article is for you if you are looking to hire a Wedding Harpist for your York wedding.

I was playing at a Wedding Fayre yesterday at York Pavilion Hotel in Fulford. This was so lovely as I am getting married there next month! So I was lucky enough to meet lots of suppliers and see the Ceremony room all decorated for a wedding. It’s always lovely to see Hayley and Craig on the events team too.

York Wedding harpist

Lots of couples were asking me about how it all works with booking a harpist for their wedding in York. So I thought I’d use today’s blog post to tell you what normally happens.

Booking a harpist for your York wedding

The first step is getting in touch with me and saying hello. Useful information to include in this first email would be the date and venue of your wedding. It’s also helpful to know which parts of the wedding you’d like music for (totally fine if you haven’t decided this yet of course).

What most couples go for is the Ceremony plus Drinks Reception package. Here’s what that includes:

  • background music while your guests take their seats before the Ceremony
  • your choice of entrance music
  • background music for the signing of the register
  • your choice of exit music
  • up to two hours of background music while your guests have their Drinks Reception (you’ll be having your photos taken at this point, as well as mingling with the guests)

This works really well because the harp makes for excellent background music – not too intrusive but audible enough to set a lovely atmosphere. Plus, the harp is such a beautiful and striking instrument visually, it looks lovely in photos too.

What music to choose

Anything you like! The beauty of hiring a harpist is that I’m there, live, and I can learn a song of your choice for your entrance and exit music. You don’t have to go for something traditional like Pachelbel’s Canon in D or the Wedding March. You could have a romantic song from your favourite film or even music from a video game that you both love!

What I can do is send you over a pdf of my repertoire list. If the song you’d like for your entrance or exit music isn’t on there, let me know and I’ll get hold of the music and learn it for you.

This is your wedding and your special day, so the more personal we can make it, the better.

What happens next is that I’ll send you a contract to sign to make sure I have all the correct details. I ask for 50% of the fee as a deposit, and the remaining 50% of the fee two weeks before the big day – payable by bank transfer.

I really hope this post has been helpful. If you have any questions or want to chat about harp music for your York wedding, do get in touch.

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2019 Goals – HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello and a belated Happy New Year. How was your first week of 2019?

The House.

As I’m writing this, a plumber is replacing our boiler, which of course packed in just days after Tim and I moved in to the new house.

So it’s been a cold few days for us.

Nevertheless, it’s taught me to be very grateful for our usual way of life – have you ever thought about just how amazing it is to have hot water on tap? How wonderful it is that our houses heat themselves automatically? How blissful it is to have a hot shower and dry yourself with a warm, dry towel?

I’m feeling very grateful for these little things today.

This is a time I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time. Tim and I are in the house, and things are finally starting to settle down into a rhythm. The only things missing right now are a washing machine (lost by the removals company *sob*) and internet (being installed on Friday *yay!*).

Life.

My plan going forward is to put these blogs up on Mondays, but as you can tell, this week’s is a little late due to not having sufficient internet/spending all my time doing laundry at my parents’/trying to stay warm in the freezing-cold house.

Last year I feel like I made a lot of progress with procrastinating less, achieving most of what I set out to do and generally staying a bit more organised. In 2019 I want to continue all of that, but I want the increased productivity to result in more income, please. It sounds shallow, but my goal is to make more than I spend. I don’t want or need loads, just enough to pay the bills and have a bit left over for a rainy day/doing up the house/getting married.

I’ve signed up for some extra work online – teaching English to Chinese children – which is actually really fun and will hopefully tide me over while I find work as a harpist and harp teacher in York. I’m very grateful to a friend of mine for recommending this to me – you know who you are – thank you babe.

My piano will be brought over from Congleton in the next week or so, at which point I can start giving piano lessons in York too – hurray! I am also starting to give harp lessons online (when I have internet) so that is a super-exciting new venture.

Health.

Another 2019 goal of mine is to prioritise my physical and mental health, I’ve gone back to the beginning with my running and starting to work my way through the Couch 2 5k app, I’ll be practising yoga and meditation regularly and trying to eat as well as I can – nothing too strict but my long-term goal is to have a good, healthy quality of life for as many years as I can. Of course, once our garage gym is all set up, Tim and I can do our strength training in there as well.

This may be the subject of another blog post (let me know if you’d like to hear more on this), but the life of a freelancer can be a little chaotic (just a little), with late nights, early mornings, disrupted meal times etc., so keeping our bodies on a schedule when it comes to eating and sleeping really helps our bodies and our health. So, as I’m reading The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda at the moment, I’m trying to stick to a regular eating/sleeping/waking up schedule to see if that results in an increased amount of energy. Fingers crossed.

So, that’s probably enough from me for now. I really hope you are well (and warm) wherever you are. Check back next week for another post.

Chat soon,
A x
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Moving to York

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you here on the blog, and as you can see from the title of this post, I have some big news…

Tim and I have been house-hunting since we got engaged in May 2017. However, it was only recently that I started to feel the call to move closer to home. York will always be special to me, it’s where I grew up and went to school until the age of 16. The thought of moving back to York makes me so happy and excited for the future. Tim is going to move his busy Personal Training and Sports Massage business over to York too, so our home is going to be a hub of activity!

So, we started looking in York and found somewhere we like in the Foxwood area, made an offer and it was accepted – hurray! Our solicitors are currently crunching through all the searches and finer details but the crux of the matter is, hopefully we’ll be in our new home by Christmas. Everyone keep your fingers and toes crossed.

This means it’s time to put my Yorkshire feelers out. If you live in York and are interested in having harp lessons, piano lessons, or music theory lessons, please do get in touch. I plan to start teaching in York as soon as possible after the new year, and I would love to help you reach your musical goals.

In the meantime, I do offer lessons via skype, so if you live in York and want to start right away, maybe we can start online and then move to offline lessons when 2019 comes around.

I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to going back to my Yorkshire roots.

As always, here are the ways in which you can contact me should you so desire:

https://twitter.com/harpistangelina

https://www.facebook.com/angelinawarburtonharpist/

https://www.instagram.com/angelinawarburton/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQzzApriMcGEdE1ZxjkWMdg

I also have a Patreon page if you are interested in supporting me in that way:

https://www.patreon.com/harpistangelina

Thanks so much for reading, let’s chat soon,

A x

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Diary of a Wedding Harpist

There’s a new video up on my Youtube channel – a little vlog of a recent weekend where I had a couple of weddings to play for. Firstly I was playing in Liverpool’s gorgeous St. George’s Hall, then the following day I was playing for a church wedding ceremony up in Chorley.

Summer is a busy time for harpists and it feels so good to have a full diary for the rest of the season.

 

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