Once a month on a Monday morning, Anna Dunwoodie’s Thames home is filled with the dulcet tones of several harps in harmony.
The long-time harp player teaches and hosts a group called the Tumbleweed Harp Circle. The group is made up of women from around Thames Valley and as far afield as Tauranga, Otorohanga and Morrinsville, most of whom are in their 70s and 80s.
The players all picked up the instrument as adults, for varying reasons.
“I heard the harp playing at my son’s wedding and thought, that’s a beautiful instrument,” one said; “I thought I’d love to play the harp and I became aware that other people my age were beginning to play,” said another.
One woman, Christine, said she had named her harp Joy because of the way the instrument made people feel.
“The utter delight, the utter joy on their faces when they just pluck the strings and make a beautiful sound is the best part… their faces light up.”
There are pros and cons to learning an instrument at a later stage in life, Anna said – with hand positions harder to maintain and full-sized harps often difficult to lug around.
“But it has something that grabs people and drags them in,” she said.
“You can’t make a yucky sound [on a harp].”
The group met over the school holidays to prepare for their upcoming Christmas concerts at Hetherington House in Waihī and The Booms rest home in Thames, where they will play a variety of pieces including carols, solos, and group items.
They were also joined by a harp student from Hauraki Plains College.
