“The Best of the Tradition is Yet to Come” an Interview with Scottish Harpist/Composer Corrina Hewat
My guest today is Scottish Harpist/Composer/Singer Corrina Hewat. Corrina is a skilled and innovative composer and arranger having created large scale commissions as well as being a music director, choir director, and has created a variety of original productions. She is widely recognized as one of Scotland’s most unique and innovative musicians. Corrina is also one of the company directors for Dragon Song Productions where she composes music for shows geared toward children 5 years of age and under working alongside puppeteers. Their production, “Moon Dragon”, was quite the success at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. Some of you may also have heard of “The Unusual Suspects”, a 22 piece band that Corrina helped co-found and direct. Corrina also has a series of online workshops coming up this November called, “Harp In Scotland”.
“We have such a broken tradition in Scotland. In a way, the Scottish tradition is being shaped by all those players who are adding to it even now.” -Corrina Hewat
As Martin Hayes once said, “The best of the tradition is yet to come.” and that is so true of Corrina’s belief that the tradition is, something that you are, “Constantly passing [onto]” to others.
We discuss what drew Corrina to the harp and composing and dealing with perfectionism.
“ It’s when you’re more vulnerable, not trying to be perfect, you’re just real…that is when I get most feedback on the music I’ve played or how I’ve made people feel” -Corrina Hewat
A lovely place where Corrina and other wonderful musicians share the tradition is The Cromarty Harp Village. It’s a small festival that Corrina has been running for the past ten years. The gathering brings harp lessons to the Scottish Highlands. People come from all over the world to gather and share music on the harp. Unfortunately, it isn’t happening in 2020, but we did discuss how that festival came to be.
Since The Cromarty Harp Village is not taking place this year, Corrina has created a wonderful series of workshops called: Harp In Scotland Online: November 13-15 2020 you can search for it on facebook as well as emailing any questions to harpinscotland@gmail.com
Harp In Scotland Online on Facebook
Tutors: Corrina Hewat, Rachel Newton from the West of Scotland, Isbel Pendlebury from Cromarty and Cheyenne Brown from Alaska (now resident in Highlands of Scotland)
Lá na Cruite, Harp Day 2020
Please make sure to take out your harps or listen to some harp music on October 17th for Lá na Cruite, Harp Day 2020.
Here’s Corrina’s wonderful arrangement of Turlough O’Carolan’s composition, Planxty Drew. O’Carolan is one of Ireland’s most famous composers of harp music.
“If somebody shines, you can also shine. If we support everybody and everybody supports everyone, we all benefit from everyone’s collective health and happiness. Rahter than doing someone down to try and get yourself further up the ladder….we can all shine…we can all support each other.” -Corrina Hewat
LINKS
Corrina’s Website: corrinahewat.com
Bandcamp: corrinahewat.bandcamp.com
Choir: HarmonySong.co.uk
The Shine Trio: Shine-trio.com
Corinna’s 22 piece band: UnusualSuspects.uk.com
Made In Midlothian: madeinmidlothian.com/music/
Corrina’s Blog on Self Care: traditionalmusicforum.org/blog-post/?newsid=20294
The Unusual Suspects: corrinahewat.com/artists/the-unusual-suspects/
Lá na Cruite, Harp Day 2020: www.harpireland.ie/showevent/harp-day-la-na-cruite-2020-17-october/
Celtic Connections: www.celticconnections.com/
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