Concerto for Harp and Chamber Orchestra is a piece that takes an intimate look at the harp: an instrument we often associate with beauty, otherness, ephemera. For me, these descriptors spawn associations with loneliness and isolation. And from these arise other more pointed emotions: anger, fear. I wanted to make a concerto for the harp that could take on all the ramifications of our perception of this instrument's character. I wanted to create a music that was mysterious and beautiful and at the same time fearful, aggressive, lonely. The harp's role as soloist is a strong one, it does not shrink from being foregrounded. But I do not intend to fight the harp's strengths and resonances nor do I want to turn it into something it is not. Hannah Lash
