Three renowned harpists will be in town tomorrow and performing at the Upper Bout in downtownish Champaign. (The old JBJ Center, you know, the all-brick strip mall with an El Toro in it?)
If you have never seen a performance of harpists, I encourage you to consider it. Aside from the way it’s portrayed in popular culture, the harp is fairly amazing, does not have to be grandiose, and is always intriguing to watch. Hands maybe shouldn’t move like that, but you can’t look away.
These particular harpists — Patrick Ball, Lisa Lynne, & Aryeh Frankfurter — all focus on the Celtic style, and mix their music with the storytelling tradition. This particular show — “A Winter’s Gift” — includes “A Child’s Christmas in Wales, a chapter from The Wind in the Willows, and passages from Shakespeare, William Butler Yeats, and Thomas Hardy, and mingles them with beloved and original pieces of seasonal music. Audiences will hear three Celtic Harps, Swedish Nyckelharpa, Fiddle, Bandura, Bouzouki and more.”
$20, 7 p.m., unique experience. I’d go but I’m working, tell me how it is.