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Hamlet hears harps or holiday season
(by Sue Hoffman - January 03, 2011)
Hamlet hears harps or holiday season
By SUE HOFFMAN
For Jody Guinn, a harpist from Newbury, a musical performance can be a way of giving back to the community.
Last week, she did just that when she and 11 of her harp students performed a concert of Christmas secular and sacred music in the Hamlet Village Atrium in Chagrin Falls. Most of the students also performed solo recital pieces.
The performers -- all female -- ranged in age from teen to adult. All from the Greater Cleveland area, they included Victoria Sevich, of Chagrin Falls, and Anna Shaulis, of Chardon.
The idea of providing music performance as a public service came to her several years ago, said Ms. Guinn, who performs regularly as second harpist with the Cleveland Orchestra. "My students always give a spring recital and I search for outlets to make it a community-service presentation. I do like to bring music to a number of people."
Her students have performed Christmas concerts at Hamlet in prior years. One of her harps actually once belonged to one of the residents, she said.
"I take a survey in the fall to see how many are interested in doing a Christmas concert," Ms. Guinn said. "This year they really wanted to perform."
With her students and their harps scattered about the Cleveland area, Ms. Guinn said they have only one group rehearsal, which is scheduled just prior to the concert.
"We rehearse in our lessons so that when we get to concert day, they are so well rehearsed," she said. "The group rehearsal goes together so easily, and it's so much fun. What's great about an ensemble is that you're not alone. They learn to jump back in" if they have to take a pause.
One of the challenges of a harp concert is "the moving of equipment," Ms. Guinn said. "The parents are extremely helpful. One of them even brings me a sandwich," she quipped.
Born in Ohio and raised in Montana, Ms. Guinn has been in the Cleveland area since 1984. She recently moved her residence and music studio to Newbury after living in Gates Mills for 11 years. She shares her home with her mother, Caryl Guinn, who teaches piano at the house.
The younger Ms. Guinn, who also lived in Chagrin Falls and South Russell years ago, chuckled about their new Music Street address.
Ms. Guinn enjoys a busy career. For the past several years, she has joined the Cleveland Orchestra for European tours, including its debut in Italy and its residency programs in Miami, Fl., Vienna, Austria and Lucerne, Switzerland. She has also played with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
In addition, she played with the former Cleveland Ballet and Ohio Chamber Orchestra for 16 years. In recent years, she has played with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, touring Japan and California and recording several orchestral works on the Telarc label.
Ms. Guinn graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received her master of music degree in harp performance studying with the late Alice Chalifoux, the Cleveland Orchestra's principal harpist for 43 years.
"She was the most influential driving force in my life besides my parents," Ms. Guinn said about Ms. Chalifoux, who died in 2008 at the age of 100.
Ms. Guinn enjoyed a musical upbringing. In addition to her mother being a public school music educator, her late father was a band director.
She teaches at Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Cleveland State University and Westminster College, in New Wilmington, Pa. She has several private students coming to her new studio.
Her students range from age 10 to adult. They include three men -- a cardiologist from Canton, a computer programmer from Cleveland Heights and a saxophone major at Baldwin-Wallace College.
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