105 Park St, South Melbourne VIC 3205, Australia
Harp Lessons | Aural Lessons
Bio
Sultans, kings, prime ministers, world leaders, royalty… maybe even genies…British harpist, Vanessa McKeand (Sundstrup) has enthralled audiences from all over the world and from all walks of life with her playing, from performing in caves to palaces, in flat-bottomed boats from Florida to Lake Erie, to Arabian dhows on the Indian Ocean!
Vanessa has performed all around the world on her bright blue 47 string electro-acoustic harp, aptly named The Big Blue. The great thing about this particular harp, Vanessa says, “When I am doing outside gigs, it can just be plugged directly into the amp and…off we go!” Originally from Britain, she also studied in the US and France. She has performed extensively throughout the Middle East, in Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and in particular Oman. There, Vanessa taught the harpists of the Sultan of Oman’s ‘Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra’, and was the resident harpist for the eminent guests of the Sultan when they visited Oman. She arrived on the shores of Australia, in Darwin where she performed numerous concerti and gave first Australian performances with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, and developed a chamber music recital series called “All things Music”.
Winner of numerous awards and prizes for her playing, Vanessa recorded for Virgin Records: French Music with the English Chamber Orchestra and the Allegri String Quartet. Although she performs as a concerto artist, soloist, and in chamber music recitals, she believes her forte is in performing light music from musicals, popular opera, jazz and even some Led Zeppelin and Metallica.
Vanessa is now based in Melbourne travelling regularly to Europe, and has featured playing regularly at many events throughout Victoria, both as soloist and orchestral harpist. Her music selection being a quintessential part of her performance. The magical and mysterious sounds of the harp are always a delight to hear, but in this musicians hands, it is a rare treat!
Teaching Info
A knowledge of being able to read music would be preferable, especially piano music. The student should expect to spend a larger part of the lesson concentrating on technique, but this will be incorporated whilst learning new pieces, so don’t be put off by this! Happy to work with any particular piece the student would like to learn as long as it is playable on the harp. I’m available to teach both Celtic and Full sized harps.