2024 Summer Lyre Conference
and Annual Members’ Meeting

With this week’s blog post, we are turning to our 2024 Summer Lyre Conference in Copake, New York. Five of our conference participants have written brief reflections about their experiences, and in addition, we are pleased to be able to share with our readers the video recordings from our opening Annual Members’ Meeting as well as our final public sharing.

To begin, we are pleased to announce the slate of officers that the LANA Board of Directors has elected to serve from August 2024 to August 2025. Nancy Carpenter has agreed to continue as president for another year, Julia Elliot will serve as vice-president, Sally Willig, with Sarah Stosiek's assistance, will take on the responsibility of secretary, and Margo Ketchum will continue as treasurer, with the faithful help of our accountant, Janice Hartmann. Sheila Johns will step back from the position of vice-president for the next year in order to devote her full attention to the increasingly demanding work of our LANA Publications.

Our officers are pleased to have such a cohesive group of board members and appreciate the support of our LANA members. If you would be interested in volunteering to help with furthering the mission of the Lyre Association, please contact us at lyreassociation.org.

Here follows the video recording of our Annual Members’ Meeting, held on August 13th, 2024. (Link to video here)

Participant Reflections on the 2024 Lyre Conference

We are grateful to the following five conference participants for sharing a few words about their experience of our summer conference this year:

From Diane Barnes: The 2024 Summer Lyre Conference was held at Camphill Village, Copake, NY, which is truly the best place to have a lyre conference! Fountain Hall has a good-sized stage for the lyrists and other instrumentalists as well as a large auditorium with many seats for the audience.

In my opinion, nothing sounds better than a stage full of lyres, with other instruments joining at designated moments in the music. Our guest master teacher, Anna Cooper, chose all of the music for us, and she also composed some of it herself. We all missed having Anna as well as her partner and colleague Sarah Boyd with us in person, but with the help of technology, we were able to take advantage of the many things they had both prepared for us through the medium of Zoom. We send our love and gratitude to both Anna and Sarah as they move through their individual healing journeys. My heart is filled with joy every time I think of this 2024 conference, and I can hardly wait for the next one.

We must also give thanks to our own Margo Ketchum and to Rose Aring from Camphill for setting up all of the needed technology – microphones and recording equipment, etc. What a feat!

***

From Sheila Devlin: My appreciation of the 2024 Summer Lyre Conference has been focused on Anna Cooper’s fingering for the family of arpeggios. My hand has changed position, flattening somewhat, which has resulted in clearer playing and better tone. This invites me to play with pleasure. As a remote participant, I applaud all the hard work that went into making the conference possible for so many, and I wish everyone a beautiful autumn full of color.

From Emily Thunberg: I appreciate your request for feedback from the summer lyre conference, and I wanted to make sure that I share with you how valuable it was for me to do the online program.

I was at the 2019 Summer Lyre Conference and learned how to play the lyre for the first time. I was very sad that I didn't see a way to continue learning it and asked the LANA Board if there was someone who could teach me over Zoom, as I live in Utah and not close to any of the teachers. Lucky for me, Diane Barnes said that she would. I have been playing the lyre bi-weekly ever since. It is only because of this online opportunity that I have been able to learn to play the lyre.

I have three young children at home and 19 piano students and leaving for a conference is just not possible for me, so the hybrid possibility this last summer was truly a gift for me. I have been able to digest the recorded material from the conference at a slower pace at home and go a little deeper with it. I am still not finished with the recordings but loving what I have learned so far.

During the Annual Member’s Meeting, I was very inspired by the sharings of people in the lyre community and was moved to ask my son's Waldorf kindergarten teacher if I could play for his class, and he said I could play for the Festival of Courage. I had never played for anyone other than my family at Christmas time.

After that, he asked me to play in the morning while the children are washing their hands and going into the circle. It has been so amazing to share the lyre with a wider audience and also to share in my son's class. I honestly don't think I would have done this without first hearing what other people were doing in their communities through the online summer conference option and my online lyre work with Diane Barnes.

I would be missing my connection to the lyre community if the hybrid conference model was discontinued, so I truly hope that it will continue!

***

From Michael Brewer:

Hearing, Listening, Insight
Luke 18

Now it happened that as they drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing the crowd passing by, he asked what was going on there. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" And those who were walking in front of the crowd warned him to be quiet, but he himself called out all the louder: "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

On stopping, Jesus commanded that he be brought to him; and when he was near, he asked him: "What do you want me to do for you?" And he said: "Lord, let me receive my sight." And Jesus said to him: "Receive your sight; your faith and trust have become a power of salvation in you." And immediately he looked up and followed him, and revealed God's working in him. And seeing him thus, all of the crowd gave praise to God. –Luke 18

Those of us who had the chance to experience a recent lyre concert at Fountain Hall in Camphill Village Copake heard the lyre orchestra play a piece by the Irish harpist-composer Turlough O'Carolan. He was an early contemporary of Bach and Handel, known (especially in Ireland) for his many beautiful pieces for the Irish harp. He was a great harpist, and he was blind. Thus, he belonged to a line of great blind musicians, stretching from the lyrist-poet Homer to such artists of our time as Joaquin Rodrigo and Ray Charles.

It has been said that blindness can lead to a sharpening of the other senses, especially hearing. This is only partially true. What can happen is that a blind person may, through relying on hearing, notice more of what is sounding in the surrounding world. But this is not hearing; it is listening. A blind person listens, and with that listening power, can come to understanding, to insight.

So, a blind beggar, perhaps like many blind beggars a musician, at the gate of Jericho and listening to conversations of those passing by, may perhaps have come to the insight that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the son of David (also a harpist). And out of the insight can come sight. Perhaps our listening to what can come as sound, melody, harmony, word out of a world we cannot see may also lead us to insight, and with divine help, to sight.

Written after the 2024 Lyre Conference

***

From Brooke Hogan:

We all are connected
To our surroundings,
Elementals and our Inner paths.
Our Music will be our guide.

We can strive and
Learn from the best,
But we are our own teachers.

Let us Rejoice
In every moment
We hold dear to our
Hearts.

Thank you so much for teaching me.
Brooke

2024 Lyre Conference Closing Evening – Recording

Finally, we are delighted to be able to share the following video that captured many of the musical offerings from our closing evening public sharing. Please note that the offerings from our Youth Program were not recorded, but we have included a recording of the premiere of Colin Tanser’s Everyman in Belfast in 2006.

Final Performances and Everyman: Link to Video Here

We are also pleased to be able to share some lovely photos of our conference experiences, almost all of which were taken or provided by Board member Saeko Cohn.