Maeve Gilchrist presents The Harpweaver - Concert Livestream

A night of original and standard traditional Celtic / Roots music, poetry, and more. This is the debut concert of Indian Hill Music’s ‘Live from Indian Hill’ virtual concert series.

“No, you haven’t landed in heaven. You’re listening to the Celtic harp of Maeve Gilchrist.” – Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR Weekend Edition, October 4, 2020

Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic (lever) harp to new levels of performance and visibility. Her innovative approach to her instrument stretches its harmonic limits and improvisational possibilities. A member of the prestigious Silkroad Ensemble and an internationally acclaimed solo musician, Maeve has appeared with such luminaries as Yo-Yo Ma, Esperanza Spalding, Tony Trishka, Ambrose Akinmusire, Solas, Darol Anger, and Kathy Mattea. In 2018 she was a featured soloist on the Dreamworks blockbuster movie soundtrack, “How to Tame Your Dragon: The Hidden World.”

An in-demand singer, composer, and arranger, Maeve’s past commissions include a ground-breaking concerto for lever harp and symphony orchestra co-written with North Carolina-based composer Luke Benton, and a new piece for harp and string quartet, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Harp festival last spring. Maeve is also co-artistic director of the new Celtic Roots and Branches Festival and assistant music director of WGBH’s Christmas Celtic Sojourn.

Her latest album The Harpweaver (October 9, 3 Birds Music) plays on the idea of artistic nostalgia. When we can’t be with those that we love, surely the next best thing is to experience the catharsis of familiar sounds; notes and words that bring a sense of connection, possibility and joy.

With The Harpweaver, Gilchrist steps into her own as a composer and producer and illuminates her roots as a traditional folk musician through the prism of luscious string parts, electronic manipulation and an archived recitation of The Ballad of the Harpweaver, by the American Jazz-Age poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay.