Harp by Candlelight will return for multiple performances this weekend.
File Photo | The Lima News
LIMA — Harp by Candlelight will return for multiple performances this weekend, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church in Lima and at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Grand Opera House in St. Marys.
Featured performer and harpist Alix Raspé-Gray is as excited as the rest of the Lima Symphony Orchestra and featured performers to be taking the stage.
“Well, I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “It has the most musical and expressive pieces for the harp with orchestra.”
Raspé-Gray is excited to be featured in two Debussy pieces, in particular, “Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp” and “Danse sacrée et danse profane, for Harp and Strings,” the latter of which will showcase how a harp’s pedals work.
“It’s constantly changing keys,” she said. “It’s very chromatic and changing colors. It’s just really a beautiful showcase. A lot of people don’t know that the harp has seven different pedals that are dedicated to changing pitch if we want to play sharp, flat or natural. There is a lot of footwork that the audience might notice me doing during the concert.”
The principal harpist for the LSO, Raspé-Gray said that among the things that keep her drawn to performing in Lima are getting to work with Music Director Andrew Crust and performers like Erin Torres, who will be featured on flute, and Carmen Granger, who will be featured on viola, for the concerts.
“I feel like (Crust) is just growing the orchestra to a place where it is really just exploding over Lima,” she said. “It’s really exciting to work with a director who is excited about the orchestra and exploring possibilities and bringing in such fantastic audiences.
“And when I received the email about playing with (Granger and Torres), I was so thrilled because they’re just fantastic.”
Executive Director for the LSO Elizabeth Brown-Ellis said that the audience should be excited by how different the concerts will be, due to both the venues and the music that will be performed.
“They’re (Trinity United and the Grand Opera House) just such beautiful venues and with all of the candelabras burning, it seems like the music as it was originally meant to be performed and as it was written,” she said. “It’s very authentic and intimate. You’re so much closer to the musicians than you normally would be and it’s just a reflective, beautiful evening.”
Brown-Ellis said that some of the pieces, which also include “Fratres for Strings and Percussion” (Arvo Pärt), “Syrinx for solo flute” (Debussy), “Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 (Mahler), “Serenade for Strings, Movement 1” (Tchaikovsky) and “Concerto for Harp and Flute, Movement 2” (Mozart), will feature soloists, duos and trios of all combinations of the three featured performers.
Raspé-Gray said that she is excited to perform the Mozart piece with Torres because, even though it is the only piece Mozart ever wrote for harp, she enjoys working with flutists and the piece is beautiful.
However, she mainly hopes that the audience is moved by at least one of the pieces.
“These works are so different in character and style,” she said. “I hope that at the very least they fall in love with one piece that truly moves them or that really touches them. I also hope they get to explore the harp. A lot of the time we’re just tucked away in the back, but this is a really great opportunity for the harp to stand out and for people to understand it more.”
Brown-Ellis said that she gets great joy from seeing the talent the orchestra can display.
“They’re all just outstanding players who are soloing in other orchestras and are at an incredibly high level of performance,” she said. “And it’s really fun for us to be able to highlight them and showcase them and kind of show them off a little bit and say, ‘Look at this incredible talent that we have right here in our own orchestra.’”
While the orchestra has performed at Trinity United for more than a decade, this weekend will also see the LSO help to kick off the 200th-anniversary celebration of St. Marys with the performance at the Grand Opera House, which recently underwent complete renovations.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Harp by Candlelight
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Trinity United Methodist Church, 301 W. Market St., Lima (Saturday), Grand Opera House, 119 W. Spring St., St. Marys (Sunday)
Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and are available at http://www.limasymphony.com.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
