Festival of Harps

Festival of Harpssm (FOH) owes its thriving existence to Diana Stork who organized the first one in 1990 in a hall in San Francisco. Her purpose in creating FOH was to introduce audiences to the remarkable diversity of harps and harp music available throughout the world. From her beginnings in Celtic and Classical music Diana, along with others, has branched out– discovering the abundant traditions and repertoire of Latin folk harps, as well as the close relatives of the harp like the African kora and adungu, the Chinese gu-zhung, the Middle-Eastern kanoun, and countless others. Inspired by these musical riches, players of Celtic-style lever and lap harps were expanding their repertoire and creating a whole new body of music, both traditionally-based and entirely contemporary.

Since 1990, the Festival of Harps has turned a bright spotlight on these performers and their work, to the delight of California audiences. We have met artists from Paraguay and Peru, Ireland and Germany, China and Japan, Senegal, Sweden and Venezuela. We’ve heard jazz harp, classical harp, Celtic harp, new-age, fusion and world-beat compositions. We’ve seen the harp partnered with every instrument imaginable, from bagpipe to jaw-harp to didgeridoo. We’ve been treated to dance performances choreographed expressly for traditional and original harp pieces. We’ve met musicians who, though honored in their own countries, might never have been introduced to the United States without FOH. And we’ve enjoyed every minute of it!

Festival of Harps has been more than a concert series. Over the years it has expanded to include educational offerings such as the “History of the Harp” lectures, the touring “World Festival of Harps” show, exhibits at the San Francisco main library, and numerous workshops with visiting musicians. On the tenth anniversary of FOH, former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown declared November 14 to be “Festival of Harps Day” in San Francisco. Since then FOH events have centered around that day, a pre-holiday gift to Bay Area music lovers.

“Diana expresses her vision with great simplicity: “I want to bring the world together through the harp.” In a community like ours, with its extraordinary cultural diversity, the task of finding those common threads that bind all people together, no matter what their origins, seems to me a highly honorable one. And this particular thread, so vibrant, lovely and joyful, is a delight to discover and re-discover, at every new Festival of Harps.”

— Maureen Ustenci Musician, author The Three Weavers

Festival of the Harps Artists
Festival of the Harps Artists
MCMF President Teed Rockwell and Director Diana Stork receiving award from Mayor Willie Brown, Fall 1999
MCMF President Teed Rockwell and Director Diana Stork receiving award from Mayor Willie Brown, Fall 1999