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Winter Harp marks 25 years with New Westminster concert

For one-quarter of a century, Winter Harp has been entertaining audiences around Canada and the U.S., and its Christmas concert has become a beloved annual tradition.
Winter Harp
Winter Harp, which was founded in New Westminster, is marking its 25th anniversary with a Christmas concert at Massey Theatre on Dec. 2, in partnership with the Vancouver Welsh Men's Choir.

For one-quarter of a century, Winter Harp has been entertaining audiences around Canada and the U.S., and its Christmas concert has become a beloved annual tradition.

The ensemble is returning to the stage at Massey Theatre to mark its 25th anniversary, sharing the stage with the Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir for a Christmas performance on Sunday, Dec. 2.

Winter Harp was founded right here in New Westminster.

It began, somewhat unexpectedly, in the mid-1980s, after Royal City Record editor told then-cub-reporter Lori Pappajohn to write a feature on the New Westminster Public Library’s chief librarian, Alan Woodland.

“Ugh,” Pappajohn remembers thinking. “How boring. I’d rather interview a sky diver or an explorer or someone who lives with crocodiles – anyone but a librarian.”

But off she went to her assignment – and within minutes of talking to Woodland, she was entranced. Woodland was anything but boring, and an instant friendship was struck when Woodland said he was a poet and Pappajohn said she was a musician.

Months later, Woodland asked Pappajohn if she would like to do a small performance with him at Christmas in the library and at Irving House; he would read Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, and Pappajohn and a friend would play harp and flute.

That was the kernel that, over the next few years, would grow into Winter Harp – which has since played to tens of thousands of people in sold-out performances throughout December in Canada and the U.S. The group has recorded 14 CDs and has been featured in its own Christmas special on CBC TV.

In 2006, Winter Harp’s Christmas tradition grew again, when the late Art Birzneck, a former New Westminster resident and Pappajohn’s chiropractor, brought the ensemble together with the Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir.

“I was getting my back adjusted by him one day at his Burnaby clinic when he said, ‘The Welsh Men’s Choir and Winter Harp ought to perform together,’” Pappajohn recalls. “Dr. Birzneck was a member of the choir, so he made a phone call and that was that.”

The concert was such a success that the two groups have been performing together every Christmas since.

“The combination of Winter Harp with this massive choir is spectacular – powerful, really,” says Pappajohn, who directs Winter Harp. “It’s a highlight of our season to perform with them, and it’sa concert not to be missed.”

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Winter Harp has released the CD Call of the Sea: Music of Sailors, Sirens and Sea Maidens. The CD features Celtic-styled songs written by Pappajohn and inspired by poets Thomas Moore, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Walter de la Mare.

The Winter Harp/Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir is on Sunday, Dec. 2 at 2:30 at Massey Theatre. Tickets are available through www.ticketsnw.ca or 604-521-5050.

Winter Harp also performs on its own Dec. 12 and 13 at Capilano University, Dec. 15 at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church in Vancouver and Dec. 16 at the ACT in Maple Ridge. See www.winterharp.com for details.

For more on the Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir concerts, see www.vwmc.ca.