Hambly and Jackson, Harp Artists in Chapel of Rest, Lenoir, NC

Gráinne Hambly and William Jackson are perhaps the two most accomplished and famous harpists in the world, and Sunday afternoon September 13, 2013, they delighted a full audience in the small Chapel of Rest in Happy Valley, North Carolina, just north of Lenoir.  

                                                    She played Irish harp, he played a Scottish harp.  I couldn’t tell the difference and didn’t ask them later when we had an opportunity while talking with them, but I remember that she used more dramatic gestures while playing and he used almost none in his work.  I did ask why they did not use sheet music and they said, smiling,  that was "the way they did it".

 Besides playing both solo and duets, Gráinne also accompanied William on a concertina, and William accompanied her on a penny flute and with an Irish bouzouki.  Gráinne pointed out how the harp is often used with other instruments, but it also has music that is unique to it alone.

     The Chapel of Rest has a reputation of being haunted, and it IS haunted – at least by the story that a former pastor was distraught over his wife’s affair with another man.  The preacher had gone to the church to pray about the matter on a Saturday night, and then hanged himself from a beam on the ceiling of the church.  He was found, hanging there the next morning by the arriving congregation.   We also have it on good faith that that did not happen.  But then the person who discounted that story had other stories to tell that sent chills up the spine almost as good as the music produced by two of the most famous harpists in the world.  

Today, the chapel was clearly haunted by beautiful music and a cool breeze drifted through the open windows carrying the slight tang of apples in its air.  

http://champlainvalleytradarts.com/grainne-hambly-william-jackson/

http://www.harpagency.com/artist1.htm