photo: Dandalina, www.lilyneill.com

Lily Neill
Lily is recognised as "part of the new Harp revolution extolling aspects of harp music never previously heard" (Irish Music Magazine 2005). Central to her style is her utilisation of techniques and repertoire from instruments other than her own. By successfully melding her own compositions with traditional music from Scottish, Irish and other folk repertoires, she has created a style and sound that is unique and melodious with a wide base of musical influences. When she moved to Finland she got involved into Nordic music as well, and in 2008 she was one of the teachers at the First Nordic Harp Meeting in Lund (see our gallery).

In her workshop, she will teach some traditional Finnish tunes on the harp and show possibilities of arrangement and variation. The tunes will be Finnish pelimanni music, i.e. traditional dance music which is nowadays mostly played by fiddlers (pelimanni, from Swedish spelman - see here for a more detailed definition). You'll be surprised how well this music goes with the harp, too!
And at the sessions and concerts, we can certainly look forward to an exciting cross-over of Celtic harp, traditional influence and Lily's original music, which was last year in Lund described as "a really really excellent performance".


Lily's websites:
www.LilyNeill.com
www.myspace.com/lilyneill