June Events

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Wednesday, June 30th at 6:30pm

Location: The Parry Mansion Museum Garden 

Free Admission
The 1700s were an era of great change in Europe and the British Colonies.  In her concert entitled "The Revolutionary Harp", Joanna Mell, harpist, will talk about the changes taking place in America and the rest of the world that led to the great War of Independence in 1776 and the events following that which witnessed the birth of our nation.  The harp was also undergoing great changes in that era, being reinvented to adapt to the needs of changing musical expression as expressed in the compositions of Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan, German composer J. S. Bach, English composer George Handel and others.  Joanna will take her audience on a historical musical journey spanning 150 years, playing music that may very well have been heard in the music room of the Parry Mansion from 1784 through 1900.
Joanna Mell is an accomplished performer on both the traditional harp (Celtic harp) and the orchestral (pedal) harp.  She received her musical training at the University of Pennsylvania (musicology), Temple University (voice and musicology) and Moravian College (voice).  She studied the harp privately with Ms. Alison Simpson of Doylestown, PA.  Joanna maintains a busy performance schedule as well as a teaching studio in Quakertown, PA.  She teaches in person and also by Zoom, and has students all over world.  She offers a wide variety of workshops by Zoom.  Joanna has published 14 books of harp music, in addition to many arrangements of classical and original pieces in sheet music.  She has recorded six CDs of music on both the Celtic harp and orchestral harp.  Joanna was on staff as a therapeutic harpist with Grand View Hospice in Pennsylvania from 1996-2011 and then Corona Regional Hospice in Corona, California from 2011-2017.