LANA's 2020-2021 Annual Report

Dear LANA members and friends of the lyre,

We are excited to share with each of you our 2020-2021 Annual Report of the Lyre Association of North America. You will hear the voices of almost all of our Board members in the various committee summaries. The compilation of reports included in this edition provide an exciting picture of the diverse programs and activities that have characterized this last year for our Association!

We have dedicated this Annual Report to our dear colleague and friend, Kerry Lee, who crossed the Threshold of Death last September 2020. We wished to take the opportunity this publication has provided for us to share with you a description of Kerry's life and the important role she played in the development of our lyre work in North America.

Please enjoy this once-a-year special issue of our Lyre Notes!

The LANA Board

To see the 2020-21 Annual Report, please click here.

Open the above link to read the Annual Report. Once there, click on the icon in the lower right hand corner to get an Index of each article so that you can choose to read them in any order you wish.

The LANA Board

Our Mission

The Lyre Association of North America is a non-profit organization whose mission is to initiate, to inspire, and to support the sounding of the modern lyre as a musical instrument in artistic, pedagogical, and therapeutic activities in North America and throughout the world.

Our aims are:

• To foster the experience and recognition of the freed tone as well as the rediscovery and deepening of our capacity to listen.

• To cultivate our community of members and friends through the following services:

  • Sponsoring conferences, concerts, and regional workshops for adults and children

  • Publishing a newsletter (Lyre Notes) and journal (Soundings), and to support the publishing of other materials relevant to our work

  • Providing the opportunity for members to rent or purchase LANA-owned lyres and to advertise used lyres for sale

  • Offering a music sales service for printed music, books, and journals in paper and digital format, along with lyre accessories

  • Helping to connect new lyrists with partners or mentors.

• To promote lyre builders whose work aligns with LANA’s mission.

• To collaborate with national and international colleagues to further support the development of our worldwide Movement for Musical Renewal in all of its manifestations, including innovations in anthroposophically-inspired instruments as well as the human voice.

http://www.lyreassociation.org

Donate to Manfred Bleffert’s Emergency Aid Fund

The house and the workshop where Manfred Bleffert lived were completely destroyed by the devastating floods in the Ahr Valley, which is located in the Eifel, in western Germany.

In addition to all of his personal belongings, the workshop studio with instruments from his instrument and musical research, the entire compositional work, the painterly and graphic works as well as all sculptural works succumbed to the violence of the flood. The extensive writings from 50 years of research are destroyed or lost as well.

To read a letter from Manfred Bleffert’s wife, Ulrike, go to our blog post.

We welcome you to use LANA's website for your donation. If you wish to donate directly to the German fund for Manfred (in euros), use the information in this link.

LANA is receiving donations in all currencies toward the emergency aid fund set up for Manfred. Funds contributed via the Donate button below will be sent to that account in Germany by LANA.

Read more: German Village Rethinks Footprint After Floods.

News from Cântaro Belo Horizonte

by Karla Polanczyk, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, cantaro.com.br

In May we had one more Cântaro “birthday”...

We went through strong changes, when (unfortunately!) Flávia returned to São Paulo, in 2019. After that we had a new singing teacher who stayed a year and left. And then came Covid-19.

Our group is now a much smaller group than it was five years ago. We are now around 18 lyres in Belo Horizonte, among very beginners and advanced lyres. We remain always strong and aware of the importance of the lyre and kantele sounds in our world, especially nowadays. I (Karla) am now the only one responsible for the kantele, lyre and singing groups at Cântaro Belo Horizonte.

Whenever possible, as has been the case since April 2021, we have in-person classes, always according to covid-19 security protocols. Unfortunately, in Brazil, we don't know how long we will be able to keep classroom lessons. But even when classes need to be online, all students continue with classes, as best as they can, until the city is back up and running.

We had a very rich meeting with some lyre players from different classes, in a beautiful and opened place. We could play and sing together the pieces that everyone and every small group play, each in their class. It was a “meeting of groups", a small lyre workshop with Cântaro´s students.

Here are some photos of this meeting:

Pictured below: In the warmth of St. John´s festivities, united in singing and lyre, we renew our strength and rekindle our light, which we carry forward like our lanterns that show us the way each day, every day!

We always appreciate, after each class and each meeting, the possibility of having such wonderful lyres and kanteles to nourish our souls and our hearts!

I hope I was able to tell and show to you how important it is to us to continue this work playing the lyres, even in such difficult and, in so many different aspects, challenging times!

Karla Polanczyk

Warm greetings from Brazil!

Lyre 2021 Regional Workshops

Thank you all for completing the LANA survey regarding regional workshops.

The following people are willing to host or facilitate workshops in their areas. Please contact them for more information.

• S E Michigan: Mary Lynn Channer and Nancy Carpenter – Lambertville or Detroit, MI
  bdchanner@yahoo.com or nancycarpenter680@gmail.com

• Virginia: Samantha Embrey – Crozet, VA
  samantha@sembrey.net

• Upstate New York: Christina Porkert – Kinderhook, NY
  cep@fairpoint.net

• Spring Valley area, New York: Saeko Cohn – Nyack, NY
  fivepekingese@gmail.com

• New Hampshire: Juliane Weeks – Peterborough, NH
  juleweeks1@gmail.com

• Kimberton, Pennsylvania: Veronika Roemer and Margo Ketchum – Kimberton, PA
  lyrists@gmail.com

We were hoping to have workshops in all the regions, from sea to shining sea.

We also have requests from other lyrists in Texas, Eastern Ohio, Colorado and California (Los Angeles and San Francisco). We would love for them to have an opportunity to play with a group. If you would be able to host or facilitate an event for these lyrists this summer, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to send their information to you.

We are looking forward to seeing the pictures and reading the reports after your gatherings!

Nancy Carpenter and Debra Barford,
for the Lyre Board (lyrists@gmail.com)

Dear all who are connected in any way with Manfred Bleffert from Germany,

German musician, composer, visual artist, and instrument maker Manfred Bleffert

A letter from Manfred Bleffert’s wife Ulrike
Date: 7/18/21
Subject: Greetings from the heart to everyone

Dear friends and people close to Manfred near and far!

We send you all warmth and comforting thoughts and big thanks for your deep sympathy, which gives us light and strength!

Yes, it is an unimaginable event that struck with full force and almost robbed Manfred of his life twice in a row. He had many helping good spirits with him when he stood alone in the top attic chamber on the night of July 14th to 15th and listened to the unleashed violence, which raged with unbelievable thunder and roar over the valley – 8-10m high! It had been raining extremely hard for many hours.

At midnight the rising water suddenly stood still, just a little under the roof ridge, the sky tore open and a bright starry sky appeared! Manfred had seen trees, houses, cars swim away and heard how the water tore away two whole walls of our house and the balconies. He stood at the window all night, sometimes singing, and experienced the dramatic rage of violence, which only gradually calmed down towards morning.

Johannes was in another house nearby; they couldn't talk to each other anymore. I myself was still in Freiburg; we wanted to go on vacation to the North Sea in a few days. Manfred had been able to call me again in the evening before all lines and the cellular network broke down, saying it was the end of the world.

I wasn't able to drive off until the next afternoon, only when the catastrophic weather and traffic conditions allowed it again. Bettina Westphal accompanied me with loving support. I wanted to pick up Manfred, who had been saved with Johannes in the meantime.

Towards the morning of the next day we both woke up very early at the same time. Manfred suddenly said the sentence: "Now the events are just reaching me," completely horrified.

Shortly afterwards, he suffered a heart attack.

He's doing reasonably well now, I'm allowed to visit him, but he's still in the intensive care unit. With our friends as well as volunteers from Bonn who are available here, we have meanwhile been able to rescue individual items from the house. The help is overwhelming and fills us with great gratitude!

Everything was under water. Nevertheless – we hope that it dries up. Individual sound tubes and cymbals lay on the completely destroyed ground, individual small sculptural works made of soapstone ... We keep looking ... many friends and our children have offered their help!

Large parts of the house and the whole studio workshop, all musical instruments and the whole household have disappeared in the floods and with it all of Manfred's artistic work from 50 years. It is incomprehensible and still needs to be understood. Irreparable destruction that cannot be physically rebuilt.

Due to my work as a eurythmist in the south, which will end at the end of January with my retirement, there is a small household available for us, including some of Manfred's work, of course. Manfred will join me in Freiburg after his extensive recovery. From there we will look for our "place to live in old age" and trust that we will find it! A place where we can continue our artistic work together. ....

I greet you all near and far in the world in Manfred's name with the light of the heart and great joy over this almost stolen but newly given life for him, the life that gives us so much to work, to learn, to understand – something full of light and pain to the same extent. We do not want to give up our gratitude and hope, bearing Rudolf Steiner's words within us:

Light divine,
Christ-Sun,
Warm our hearts;
Enlighten our heads;
That good may become
What from our hearts we are founding,
What from our heads we direct,
With focused will.

With heartfelt thoughts and in Manfred's name and will,
Ulrike (ulrikebleffert@posteo.de)

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Read the article Travels with Manfred about David Adams’ 2014 visit to Manfred and his home and studio in Heiligenberg, Germany, which includes various photos of his paintings, sculptures, furniture, and unusual musical instruments. From the Art Section Newsletter, No. 42, Autumn-Winter 2014, pp. 35-39.

The Beings of Silence: An Introduction to the Musical Work of Manfred Bleffert – From Soundings 3, 2 (Spring 2011): 5-14, published by the Lyre Association of North America.

Read a report on Workshops with Manfred Bleffert in a 2010 article by David Adams, published in Being Human: https://www.rudolfsteiner.org/fileadmin/user_upload/being_human/bh-articles/adams/Bleffert-Adams2.pdf

Field of Strings

"Field of Strings" was one of Manfred’s one-of-a-kind original instruments, consisting of 12 rectangular "Lyres" linked together on a stand in a half circle. Lots of fun to play (but now probably destroyed).

In Memory of Colin Tanser

(Jan 5, 1943 – June 26, 2021)
Biography by Jennie Tanser

Colin Tanser was born on January 5th, 1943, five days later than his wife Jennie! Throughout his life he sustained a deep love for music, which manifested in many diverse directions, and we were most fortunate in that we could often work together artistically, recognizing that this was an important part of our life together.

His first instrument was piano, then the organ. He played flute, all the recorders, French horn, tuba, accordion, banjo, double bass, classical guitar, harp, also the lyre, which he was always enthusiastic to promote. He studied music in college, then taught in schools, becoming Head of Department. He played all kinds of music in the ‘O.K. Band’ in Sheffield and played music for stage performances, helping children in his class in the Steiner School to make and play their own pipes.

In Stroud he taught private lessons in several instruments and took a class in Cotswold Chine School, where he began to work therapeutically with music based on the ‘Image of Man’ in accordance with anthroposophical principles. This was developed further in the Camphill schools for pupils with special needs, and he pioneered a three-year training course in music therapy for students of Curative Education.

Colin was very involved with color-light therapy for which he played the lyre, working with the planetary scales and the tone for the day. He also created songs for the festivals of the year and for various events and occasions, and these have been sung in many different countries.

His lyre music has been very much appreciated and admired. It has been played all over the world, including a work commissioned for the international lyre concert in Belfast in 2006, played by two hundred lyres. This piece, ‘Everyman’, included a children’s choir and hand bells and was a huge triumph.

Colin has inspired many people through his modest nature and his love of music. (Listen to ‘Everyman’ on LANA’s website.)

Jennie Tanser / Upper Esk Music

Andrew Dyer, of Upper Esk Music, has prepared this song so that it can be printed out and distributed freely. Andrew has printed all of Colin's music, and it's wonderful that it is now all easily available through the Upper Esk website as well as through the Lyre Association of North America.

The lyre world does not have too many composers of the caliber and diversity of Colin and his wonderful music, so we can all pay tribute to him, and the gifts he has left us.

With thanks, and humility, Anna Cooper

Summer 2021 Lyre Opportunities

Dear LANA members and friends in North America,

Since our much-anticipated 2021 World Lyre Conference in the Czech Republic has been postponed until next year, LANA has stepped in to provide our members and friends in North America with another opportunity that we feel could bridge the gap this summer.

The LANA Board would like to encourage and support some in-person regional lyre gatherings this summer and into the fall. In our last Annual Report, we included a map that divided our membership into regions so that lyrists could be aware of the geographic locations of other lyre enthusiasts in their local areas. For your interest, we have included this map along with the link to a brief survey to kick off this process in order to provide us with information we can use in helping to support as many gatherings as possible. Of course, each person could choose to host or participate freely with whatever group anyone would like to gather or invite.

In the survey, we ask about your personal interest to participate in such a gathering and what parameters (location, dates, timing, etc.) would work best for you. We also ask if you might be willing to host such a gathering in your local area. Importantly, we ask if you imagine that a group in your area might wish to be joined by an experienced lyre teacher to guide or facilitate such a gathering. Finally, we ask for volunteers who might be willing to serve as such traveling teachers.

Your Lyre Association has made the decision to cover travel expenses of volunteer teachers up to $500 per teacher, if the local group is willing to host them and perhaps collect a modest gratuity for them. All details would be decided by the general consensus of the local participants with our support as needed.

So we are beginning this process by gathering information to see how LANA can best support our members and friends in this opportunity to start making music together again. Your responses to our questions will allow us to do this, and we hope that everyone who even has a remote possibility to participate in such a gathering will please respond to this brief survey. We have already heard from one international colleague that he will take this into consideration in planning a personal trip to the States this summer so that he might be able to participate in one of our regional events!

Over the last 14 months, we have all had to become very creative in seeking for soul-nourishing ways to support our music-making and lyre-playing in the absence of being able to gather as we normally would. This summer, the LANA Board would like to work with our members and friends to take advantage of new possibilities that exist for us now to move in the direction of playing together again in anticipation of our World Lyre Conference in 2022. Please help us to do this by taking a moment to respond to this survey so that we can support each other in these efforts!

Go to: https://fs3.formsite.com/lyrists/form7/index.html

Sincerely,
Sheila Johns, for LANA

Looking for Mentors for The Lyre Connection

Most of us were fortunate to be introduced to the lyre by a teacher or friend who deftly guided and supported our relationship with the instrument. The influence of our early mentors played a role in our successful mastering of skills and the passion we feel for the lyre. The nature of the instrument was enlivened by the social context in which we learned and the relationships nurtured as we played.

To create an opportunity for LANA members to keep the cycle of mentoring alive, The Lyre Connection program offers a forum for experienced lyrists to support and encourage a growing community of beginners. As we move the lyre forward in the 21st century, we are enthusiastic about sharing our instrument with a new generation of players.

The Lyre Connection connects volunteer mentors with students who have questions. Often we are contacted by new lyrists who need some help getting oriented to the instrument. They need a few coaching sessions: perhaps some suggestions on best beginner books, tips on how to hold the instrument, and basic tuning guidance. Sometimes there are more advanced players with specific questions particular to the lyre: choices of repertoire, the relevance of 432 tuning, or how to work with the planetary scales (to name just a few possibilities!). Whatever your level of lyre-playing experience, your skills are needed!

If you can volunteer a few hours of your time in support of the lyre community, we encourage you to consider becoming a volunteer mentor through our Lyre Connection program. The relationship between the mentor and the new student will be defined based on your time, interests, and abilities. We encourage mentors to be available as a resource for a month or two if matched with a beginner. Once the student is more confident, the mentor may opt to transition into a traditional (paid) teacher role, or a new teacher may be found for the student.

Please fill out the mentor questionnaire (here), which will help us match you with a student seeking a mentor. We will offer tips and suggestions to mentors, and we will work toward pairing them with students by region.

Please contact Diane Barnes at dianeibarnes1@gmail.com if you would like to learn more about this initiative and become a mentor. Thank you!

NEW: Choroi Pentatonic Children’s Lyre

We have just added a new 7-string Choroi pentatonic children’s lyre to our inventory of rental lyres. This beautiful little children’s lyre is brand new and comes in its own wooden case. It is perfect for children and adults alike and is at home in the classroom or therapeutic settings. It is a very adaptable instrument with a lovely sound.

The Choroi pentatonic children’s lyre can be rented from the Lyre Association of North America for $20 a month and is also available through our rent-to-buy program.

For a complete list of available instruments, see: http://lyreassociation.org/lyre-rentals

LANA’s Auction – a Ringing Success!

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Thanks to all of you, LANA’s Auction brought in $3,882.00 – exceeding our goal by $382! We SO appreciate the many donations and bids that made for a successful auction!!!

We’ve sent emails to all the winning bidders to connect them to the donors, so expect to be hearing from them soon. (And please let us know if the email did not make it all the way to your inbox!)

–Wendy Polich, for the Auction Committee

International Lyre Conference Postponed Until 2022

Dear Friends,

We received the following message from our friends in the Czech Republic. In the meantime, the LANA Board will be discussing other possibilities for lyre gatherings this summer. Stay tuned!

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic situation, we will have to postpone the conference until next year at approximately the same time (hopefully from the 7th to the 14th of August, 2022).

I am so sorry for this complication, but I hope that next year the conference can be held without the restrictions, and with people from all countries who wish to attend.

With warm regards,
Helena Hlaváčková

IN MEMORIAM – Channa Andriesse Seidenberg

July 20, 1939 – March 14, 2020

Channa Seidenberg

      The Board of the Lyre Association of North America wishes to remember our dear friend and LANA Board colleague, Channa Seidenberg on the first anniversary of her passing.

Channa was introduced to the lyre in 1971, and in 1982, she was among the group of five founding members of the Association for Promoting the Lyre as a New Instrument (APLANI), which led to the establishment of the Lyre Association of North America in 1991. Channa played a decisive role in the development of the lyre work in North America, and she served continuously on our Association board for 37 years until the time of her passing in March.

      As an active member of LANA, Channa helped to plan and organize conferences with a focus on teaching youth as well as building networks among lyre builders. She taught lyre students from all around the globe, and in her later years, she traveled to China to lead workshops on the lyre, singing, and listening. Her networking skills proved invaluable in supporting the creation and development of the international lyre community over the last 20 years.

      Channa promoted and taught the lyre to adults and children for over three decades. She developed a two-handed approach to the 7-string pentatonic lyre and created a pedagogical path of lyre development for children. One of her areas of specialty with the chromatic lyre was the mirrored or planetary scales. She delighted in introducing these unique scales to adults using a phenomenological approach through listening.

      Channa’s great gift as a lyrist was her ability to improvise. She both composed and improvised for many plays as well as for fairy tale and puppet performances, and she worked extensively on the development of lyre music for the sequence of Raphael Madonna paintings, improvised out of her study of the circle of fifths and the accompanying eurythmy gestures and presented during every Advent and Holy Nights’ season. 

      Channa was one of the founding members of the Resonare Foundation Course in Music out of Anthroposophy, where for 12 years, she led singing, lyre, improvisation, and dedicated listening sessions with the musical intervals.  Channa’s professional training was in voice, and she was a teacher of the Werbeck School for Uncovering the Voice for over three decades. She was a prolific composer who penned volumes of beloved rounds and choral pieces as well as instrumental and incidental music for many occasions, including festivals and in celebration of personal milestones, such as christenings and weddings. In addition, she was a teacher of the Werbeck-based therapeutic singing work, and she also trained and practiced as an anthroposophic music therapist.

      Again and again, Channa’s biography demonstrates her strength and resiliency – in the death of her father at the hand of Nazis, in her “adoption” by a Christian family in Holland during World War II, in the testing of her Orthodox Jewish background, in her recognition of anthroposophy, and in her care of those with developmental differences as her life’s path as well as through her life-long passion for music. Channa knew that the traditional path she was born into was not her individual path, and she searched for her teachers with resolve. If she was convinced that someone was a teacher who could help her along her path, she didn’t let “no” dissuade her.

      Music was the soul of Channa’s life in singing, playing, composing, directing, and music therapy. When the “red threads” of her life – music and anthroposophy – joined together, Channa recognized her work, and her devotion to her path was consuming. She was the creator and director of the Camphill Village Ensemble in Copake, NY, which played in many venues, including Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and she collaborated over the years with many renowned musicians. After her return to Copake in 2017 following her leg injury in China, she remained actively engaged in the Camphill life rhythms, contributing to the social aspect of the community through leading singing and continuing to teach lyre and offer music therapeutically.

      After three separate struggles with cancer, Channa passed on March 14, 2020, joining her husband Leon, who died in 2005, and her half-brother Jonathan, who died in 2018. In addition to her colleagues in the international lyre community, Channa leaves behind much-loved sons Andreas and Julian, their families, and two sisters, one in New York and the other in Israel.

Help our Community Flourish by Bidding on an Auction Item!

Spring is in the air! New growth ... new beginnings. Let’s all flourish!

Have you bid yet?  Each bid adds up, strengthens our community, and helps us towards our financial goal. 

Funds raised in our online auction go towards our Financial Aid Fund to help our members attend regional, national, and/or the next international conference in the Czech Republic.  The Phoenixville Area Time Bank (PATB) is donating 60% of proceeds from their items while 40% will help PATB members. 

Auction Specialty Services:

Did you know that in addition to musical instruments, books, art, crafts, and unique gifts, our online auction features specialty services from our very own community members and friends?  Get to know them (and yourself) by bidding on an online service item and learning something new! 

Lyre Playing

Are you ready to go to the next level with your lyre playing, or perhaps take your very first lesson with an experienced lyre teacher?  Perhaps you wish to explore new ways of listening to the lyre with an experienced travel guide in the land of sound?  Are you ready to learn a pedagogical approach with lyre playing and young children?  Would you like to learn more about the planetary scales as a daily practice? 

Singing and Music Making

Perhaps you have always wanted to uncover your voice with Werbeck singing, but never had the opportunity to travel to a class?  Do you want to be introduced to therapeutic singing? Or maybe you wish to learn songs in the mood of the fifth to play and sing to your child or grandchild?  Do you have fun singing with the ukelele but are ready to learn new rhythms and finger pickings and really breathe life into songs? 

Movement

Is your body wanting to explore therapeutic ways to move or new streams of movement? 

Know Thyself

Could you use a life interview session to review the outlines and direction of your life story, past, present, and future? Do you have a dream that needs tending or a difficulty that is calling to you for more discernment or understanding or a different way of seeing?  Have you ever wondered what your birth chart might reveal through astrosophy? 

Take the leap and find out!  And while you do, know that you are helping your community with each session and each bid. 

In order to bid you will need to create an account, which is easy to do. Just go to https://www.32auctions.com/LANA and follow the instructions. All items will be shipped in the continental U.S. only. Online specialty services may be bid on by our international community. You can also simply donate by clicking on the green donate button!

LANA's Auction - March 5–15, 2021

The Lyre Association of North America (LANA), partnering with the Phoenixville Area Time Bank (PATB) will hold an online charity auction from March 5th through March 15th to help people in need. The 135+ auction items include paintings, books, musical instruments, and many treasures. Auction opens at 12 p.m. EST on March 5th.

Proceeds will sponsor LANA members who need financial aid to attend the 8th World Lyre Conference in the Czech Republic in August 2021.

PATB will provide scholarships to designated constituents who need assistance paying their membership fees. For PATB items, the proceeds will be split 60 (LANA) / 40 (PATB). "PATB is excited to partner with LANA for this online auction. Funding community members allows them to participate in our service exchange system, and thus strengthen further the bonding among community members," said Diana Baldi, President of PATB.

Both organizations hope to raise $2,000+ for these worthy causes. The auction can be accessed via this link – www.32auctions.com/LANA.

The Phoenixville Area Time Bank (www.patimebank.org) was founded in 2004 to provide and foster an effective alternative to the market economy by using service hours as currency. (One hour of a member’s time equals one “Time Dollar.”) The vision is to build an online network of neighbors who generously share their talents, skills, and time with each other, including local non-profits and businesses.

The Lyre Association of North America (www.lyreassociation.org), founded in 1984, continues to support its Mission: To initiate, to inspire, and to support the sounding of the modern lyre through artistic, pedagogical, and therapeutic activities in North America and throughout the world.

John Billing CD’s

A Special Addition to our Auction Offerings

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By Julia Elliott

Thanks to a generous donation by the amazing lyrist and composer, John Billing, we have CD’s of exceptionally beautiful lyre music for sale. The CD’s will be available through our auction site on March 5th and can also be found in our music store for $10.00. All proceeds from the CD sales will go directly to our financial aid fund in support of LANA members’ travel to the upcoming international conference. Purchase of these CD’s will give you hours of listening bliss as well as the good feeling you get from helping an important cause!

There are four CD titles of John Billing’s music available: Gentillesses, Stream, Turlough O’Carolan, and Pale Blue Rock. Each features Billing’s very special lyre-playing and compositions, and each CD has a unique flavor all its own. Gentillesses includes recorders and is a collection from Billing’s music book of the same name. Songs include “A Shady Grove,” “The Sun Rising,” and “The Silent Isle.” If you love these pieces, you can also find the book HERE.

Turlough O’Carolan contains Billing’s gorgeous settings of the 18th century Irish harpist’s music. Included on this CD are “The South Wind and Planxty Irwin,” “Eleanor Plunkett,” and “Carolan’s Farewell to Music.” This CD will surely get you in the mood for March 17th and it will give you joy all year round.

On the CD Stream, many of Billing’s best loved compositions appear, including many of his lyre preludes as well as favorites like “Light on the Lake” and “Love Song Without Words.” Pale Blue Rock, however, is something fresh and new. This CD features improvisations and arrangements for lyre that reminds us of how versatile this instrument is. Here you will find settings of such pieces as “House of the Rising Sun,” “Hotel California,” and “Chan Chan.”

We encourage you to gift yourself or a friend one (or all!) of these wonderful CD’s. You will be so glad you did! (And we will be, too!)

With our heartfelt thanks to John Billing for his generosity!

Thank you!

An update on Crowd-funding to help replace a lyre lost by fire ...

Thank you so much for those who kindly supported Laura Langford Schnur. She is truly touched by the generosity of her lyre colleagues around the world. As of today, we have raised $1740 for her to buy a new lyre. In good health and spirit, Laura is looking forward to purchasing a Derscheid Legacy soprano lyre, which the Pennsylvania-based lyre builder Alan Thewless will complete soon. Laura is thrilled to serve LANA and the international lyre community again, and she has already helped us to find a supplier of Maria Renold’s twelve-fifth tuning forks, which will soon become available in LANA’s online store.

On behalf of Laura, we would like to thank you again for supporting her so generously. For those of you who still wish to support her, the GoFundMe website will remain open until March 3.

We wish you all happy and healthy mid-winter weeks, until the spring comes again. -Saeko Cohn, for the Lyre Association of North America

Announcing the 8th World Lyre Conference

August 8-15, 2021, in the Czech Republic (Český Krumlov)

[From our colleagues in the Czech Republic]
Dear Friends of the Lyre,

First of all, we wish you a happy New Year 2021. May the new year bring us time to engage together with music and our fellow musicians, and focus on our mutual health, energy, and insight into everything that comes to meet us.

I know that the current situation is very difficult for everybody, and we do not know what the future holds. The words of Flavia Betti, a lyre teacher from Brazil, speak deeply to me in our current world situation: “The living strength of the tone has never been more evident to me. Never has music been more needed...“ Recognizing the importance of music and especially the lyre at this time, and all the important impulses from teachers, players or lyre-builders, we continue to prepare optimistically for the World Lyre Conference and the Pedagogical Conference in 2021.

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In this spirit, I would like to invite you to participate in the preparation and realization of the 8th World Lyre Conference, to be held in the Czech Republic (Český Krumlov) from the 8th of August to the 15th of August 2021. The theme is:

The Presence of Spirit
Playing the Lyre as an Art of Presence

(We know that the translation of the Czech version of the theme “Duchapřítomnost” or the German version of the theme “Geistesgegenwart” into English is not entirely accurate, but perhaps we will find together an even more suitable English term.)

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The 8th World Lyre Conference

The conference will include a program for players of all levels (the workshops for children and young players and the workshops for beginners and for advanced players) and a meeting with the builders of musical instruments and a meeting with publishers of musical literature and notes.

The World Lyre Conference will be preceded by the Pedagogical Conference from the 6th to the 8th of August. The Pedagogical Conference will focus on the development of an internationally networked lyre teacher training.

Each day we have scheduled eight workshops in the morning focused on the conference theme, nine workshops in the afternoon, focused on any topic of potential interest, one morning workshop for children and young players, and evening lectures or concerts.

Call for participation

Dear friends, we are looking for workshop-leaders, lecturers, concert players and national coordinators and of course all participants.

Workshop-leader, Lecturers

We are seeking some more workshop-leaders for our morning workshops (on the main theme of the conference), nine workshop-leaders for the afternoon workshops (topics of potential interest), some more workshop-leaders for workshops of the Pedagogical Conference and lecturers for evening lectures. The workshop for children and young players will be led by music therapist Hong Chang Kim and myself (Helena Hlaváčková).

The conference fee, accommodation, and meals are fully covered for lecturers.

If you are interested in participating as a workshop leader, lecturer, please send a proposal for the title of your workshop or lecture, a short description and a brief biography of your experience to the main coordinator. See the email addresses below and examples in www.lyra-symposium.cz/en/world-lyre-conference2021/.

Workshop or lecture proposals (1. Name, 2. The title of the workshop or the lecture and a short description, 3. A short biography).

The final date for submitted proposals is 28. 2. 2021.

Concert players

We have scheduled a lecture or a concert for each evening. If you are interested in participating as a concert player, please send a proposal for the title of your musical piece (with its time), and your brief biography to the main coordinator.

National/Regional coordinators

We are looking for a volunteer from each country or region who would be willing to cooperate with us and help us to promote the Conference to schools, Camphills, and other initiatives. If you are interested, please let me know by the 28. 2. 2021.

Participants

The expected capacity of the Lyre conference is 150 participants, and 60 participants at the Pedagogical conference. The final size of the event depends on the development of the pandemic and the amount of interest we receive from lyre players around the world.

We have pre-booked accommodation in Český Krumlov (some of the reservations are valid only until April 2021).

A detailed program of the Conference should be distributed in March together with the sheet music for workshops and music in the plenum. At the end of April, we must also consider the pandemic situation concerning our conference. Please visit our webpage at www.lyra-symposium.cz/en and for more information please contact our coordinators. See below.

For now, you can dream about our common music-making in the beautiful baroque spaces of Český Krumlov – the castle Riding Hall (http://www.zameckajizdarna.cz/en/) and Monasteries (https://www.klasteryck.cz/en/monasteries-cesky-krumlov/), where the conference will take place. You can look forward to a rich program including eurythmy and meditation work, various workshops, evening concerts or lectures, the main concert of all participants, and last but not least, the opening lecture, which will be on the topic: “The Lyre – The Light´s Rays”.

We know that the situation is complicated at the moment, and we are aware of the possibility of postponing the conference for a year, but so far we are hopeful of a favorable development.

In the event of cancelation full refund will be made. We cannot be held responsible for canceled accommodation. We appreciate any feedback regarding your participation or non-participation.

I hope that our general conference theme, as well as the topic of the main conference lecture, bring light to these difficult times. Please share this e-mail with your lyre friends.

With warm regards,
Helena Hlaváčková (Bartošová) with Jan Braunstein and the conference team

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Conference team members:

• Helena Hlaváčková (Bartošová) - organizer and main coordinator (helena.hlavackova@centrum.cz), available also in my old e-mail helenabartosova@centrum.cz)

• Jan Braunstein - artistic director and coordinator of the main concert (atelier@delos.cz)

• Gerhard Beilharz - coordinator for the publishers of sheet music (info@leier-forum.com)

• Martin Tobiassen - coordinator of Pedagogical conference (martin.tobiassen@googlemail.com)

• Gundolf Kuehn - coordinator for the lyre builders (gundolf.kuehn@t-online.de)

• Kateřina Křováková - coordinator for accommodation (cariadwr@gmail.com)

• Alena Pekařová – coordinator for meals (apekarova@seznam.cz)

Workshop-leaders, Lecturers: Jan Braunstein, John Billing, Yannis Pantazis, Hana Adamcová, Duncan Mackintosh, Hong Chang Kim, Helena Hlaváčková (Bartošová)….)