Earlier this month I played for a very special occasion at Birdsall House, near Malton.
It was the hundredth birthday of a lady called Hermione, who grew up in this beautiful home. Together with some of her family members, we came up with a playlist that we hoped she would enjoy.
I love when my clients want to pay special attention to the playlist. It makes the event much more personal and meaningful. It also gives me the peace of mind that I am giving my clients exactly what they want.
The Playlist
The requests were as follows:
- classical pieces, but nothing too cliché
- plenty of folk music
- nostalgic songs from the World War 2 era
I am classically trained so I have plenty of classical music in my repertoire. I use forscore on my iPad to create playlists for each event that I play for. So I put in most of my classical repertoire, taking out Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Greensleeves, and anything else I deemed ‘overplayed’.
For the folk music section, I added in Scottish folk tunes Fairy Lullaby, Loch Lomond and O’er the Sea to Skye, a Welsh folk song called Watching the Wheat, and from Ireland I decided to include Londonderry Air.
When it comes to the World War 2 nostalgia, I decided on A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, The White Cliffs of Dover, and We’ll Gather Lilacs. These songs remind me of my childhood, my father would play the piano at parties while my sister sang these songs. Such happy early musical memories.
On the day
So with the playlist finalised, I headed over to Birdsall House with my harp. It’s worth mentioning that this was my first engagement since having my baby, so to be honest I was a little nervous! I hoped I would cope with lifting and moving the harp ok post-caesarean, and I hoped I would still have the stamina to play for long periods of time. I hadn’t done my usual amount of practice while looking after my newborn baby.
Luckily, everything went really well and I received lovely feedback regarding my contribution to the festivities. I felt so welcome, the food and conversation were both excellent. I had a ‘harpy’ version of Happy Birthday up my sleeve, and then it was time to head home.
All in all, a fabulous gig and a fabulous day at Birdsall House.
Here is a lovely review following the party:
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