Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic harp

Described by one critic as “a phenomenal harp player who can make her instrument ring with unparalleled purity,” Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic (lever) harp to new levels of performance and visibility. 

Born and raised in Scotland and now based in New York, Gilchrist‘s innovative approach to her instrument stretches its harmonic limits and improvisational possibilities. She is as at home as a soloist with an internationally renowned orchestra as she is playing with a traditional Irish folk group or using electronic augmentation in a more contemporary, improvisatory setting. 

She tours internationally as a band leader, soloist, and composer, and she belongs to a number of innovative collaborations including the prestigious Silkroad Ensemble, Arooj Aftab’s Vulture Prince Ensemble, and a more electronics-based project with Nashville-based bassist Viktor Krauss. She has appeared at such major music events as Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Tanglewood Jazz Festival, the World Harp Congress in Amsterdam, and the historic opening of the Scottish Parliament. She has played with such luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Esperanza Spalding, Tony Trishka, Ambrose Akinmusire, Darol Anger, and Frankie Gavin. 

Gilchrist has released five albums to date, including her most recent recording, The Harpweaver, which was hailed by The Irish Times in its five-star review as “Buoyant, sprightly and utterly beguiling …. a snapshot of a musician at the top of her game.” Other albums include three recordings for the Adventure Music label including her 2017 release with bassist Viktor Krauss, Vignette; and a self-released solo album, The Ostinato Project, a beguiling exploration of the possibilities of her instrument. In 2018, Gilchrist was a featured soloist on the Dreamworks blockbuster movie soundtrack, How to Tame Your Dragon: The Hidden World. 

Gilchrist was the first lever harpist to be employed as an instructor by her alma mater, Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she taught for five years before she became the school’s visiting artist in 2018. She is an in-demand composer and arranger, with past commissions including a ground-breaking concerto for lever harp and symphony orchestra co-written with North Carolina-based composer Luke Benton, and several works for harp and string quartet including her three-movement piece Pastures Red premiered at the Edinburgh International Harp festival in 2018. Gilchrist is the co-artistic director of the new Rockport Celtic Roots and Branches Festival and the co-music director of WGBH’s Christmas Celtic Sojourn. 

To learn more about Maeve Gilchrist, please visit her website (www.maevegilchristmusic.com). 

Hailed by The New Yorker as a “first-rate, versatile musician,” guitarist Kyle Sanna’s musical practice includes composition, improvisation, the recording studio, coding, and the traditional music of Ireland. 

His compositions have been performed at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Royal Opera House in Oman, Sydney’s ABC studios, the National Recital Hall in Taipei, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and many points between. WNYC’s New Sounds and Soundcheck host John Schaefer called his music “unconventionally beautiful.” 

Sanna has received commissions from Brooklyn Rider, The Knights, Palaver Strings, Beta Collide, soprano Danielle Birrittella, and flutist Alex Sopp. Festival appearances include the International Symposium on Electronic Art, The Oregon Bach Festival, and Art Basel Miami Beach. His “ruminative and shape-shifting” (San Francisco Chronicle) work for string quartet, Sequence for Minor White, won First Prize in the 2018 Charlotte New Music Festival Composition Competition. His music appeared on the 2022 PBS documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein. 

Sanna has arranged music for Béla Fleck, Jan Vogler, Anne-Sofie Von Otter, Martin Hayes, and for Yo-Yo Ma on two Grammy Award-winning albums: Songs of Joy and Peace (2010) and Sing Me Home (2016) with Silkroad. His arrangements have appeared on The Colbert Report, NPR’s Performance Today, and on the Sony Classical, Sony Masterworks, In a Circle, and Naïve labels. 

In addition to his composing and arranging, Sanna performs regularly as an improvising guitarist with Kinan Azmeh’s CityBand and Ground Patrol, and performs music based in the Irish tradition with the Seamus Egan Project, Martin Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble, and a duo with violinist Dana Lyn. He is equally at home in the recording studio as on the stage, and has produced nine full-length albums by various artists. 

Sanna studied jazz at the University of Oregon and composition at the Université Lumière Lyon II in France. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

To learn more about Kyle Sanna, please visit his website (http://kylesanna.com). 
 

Jennifer Llewellyn is a certified yoga, meditation instructor, and professional artist and designer. She is the Chief Wellness Officer of Majestic Hudson Lifestyle: A Spiritual Boutique and Sanctuary located in Katonah, NY. She believes mindfulness practices are like creativity: a boundless expression of passion, grace, imagination, and strength. As a teacher, she emphasizes the physical, intellectual, and emotional benefits of creativity, meditation, and mindfulness — both in personal practice and integrated into our daily lives. She guides experiences woven with beautiful tools that help initiate a state of calm abiding and compassion.   

To learn more about Jennifer Llewellyn and her practice, please visit Majestic Hudson.