Solo Celtic harp music is Alison's passion. She started playing the harp in 1985 while living in Gore, a small town in the South Island of New Zealand, noted for its annual country music festival. Struggling with such odds she persisted at her craft, earning her first gig….. with the local hearing impaired group!

Alison was able to pursue a more Celtic flavour when she moved to Dunedin, New Zealand, and was soon active as a musician in the New Edinburgh Folk Club (Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinburgh and is the Celtic capital of NZ). She became a key member of a succession of performance groups including Blarney Rose who produced a tape and were dubbed the Irish Light Orchestra of the South because of their proliferation of members.

In 1993 Alison built her 2nd instrument, a 36-string Paraguayan Harp, at a harp making workshop in Australia. Immediately following was the First Australian Harp Festival where Alison performed between the constant re-tunings of the Paraguayan's new strings.

In 1996 Creative New Zealand funded Alison on a professional musician development trip to the International Folk Harp Conference in Olympia, Washington. A year later, she produced her first solo CD, Harping On.

In 1997 Alison did a tour of the South Island of New Zealand with with a series of dates including a gig in a large winery cave with Dunedin soprano Anna Goode. Later that year Alison re-emigrated back to Canada with her husband, Stephen, and her two now teenaged children.

Alison now lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and performs extensively as a professional musician on the Paraguayan and Celtic harps for concerts, weddings, schools, corporate, recording sessions, community and private events. Her most recent acquisition is a superb sounding 36-string NOVA lever harp made by Sandpiper Instruments (John Westling) in Oregon. See the Harps page.

Alison's repertoire now includes over 20 hours of music memorized from which she can improvise indefinitely and creatively arrange to everyone's delight. Her compositions made up 50% of the recording time on her last CD. Making music is what Alison is all about. Her joy!

Alison's repertoire is constantly expanding as she explores the many voices of the harp. Initially Celtic, then Celtic and Latin and then music of the world translated and arranged for harp. Her current repertoire reflects her passion for multicultural music. She is now on an exploration of early Canadian tunes and early music in general.

Alison now works primarily as a soloist but has been a part of duos and ensembles, and is currently collaborating with other musicians with the desire to present a duo concert series. For the last seven years Alison has presented concerts throughout British Columbia's Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Sunshine Coast and the Lower Mainland.

The interweaving of rhythm,
melody and harmony
fascinates me, particularly
when played on such a
beautiful instrument
as the harp!

On my recordings you
will hear music and
musical influences from...

Spain (Ladino)
Cuba
Zimbabwe
Australia
Balkan Countries Central America
Eastern Europe
New Zealand
France (Britany) The Caribbean
The Shetlands

Alison