Our Director Diana Stork recently traveled to the Redwoods forests for the first time. In a quiet moment standing amongst the trees, the idea of bringing harps into the redwoods to help raise awareness of the plight of the remaining trees emerged. The impact of humans on the forests has been vast: From what were once massive expanses of forest, only 3-5% of the ancient and old growth trees are still living today, and the ones that remain now face the threat of ongoing climate change.
Music has a unique way of reaching people and uniting communities. We will use the funds raised from this campaign to produce a concert series created to bring greater public awareness of the trees and long after this tour, to continue raising awareness through professionally filmed and edited videos of our live performances amongst the trees. Our mission is to use music to promote a deeper understanding of the forest and the ancient redwoods. Our concerts will foster partnerships with conservationists and will encourage the community to take initiative in preservation efforts.
We have booked five shows over the course of six days in the area surrounding Northern California's Avenue of the Giants. In addition to these booked shows, guides from the Humboldt Redwoods Interpretive Association will bring us into the forest for a handful of impromptu performances among the trees.
The entire project will be filmed and distributed after the tour, free of charge on Youtube, so that we can continue to raise awareness after the shows are over.
The entire concert series is being produced and run by our director, ensemble members, their families, and other local harpists. Part of the benefit of this project is the education of our young musicians. Many BAYHE alumnae have gone on to become professional musicians, and use the skills gained in BAYHE to this day.
The harpists involved (all 17 of us!) have taken charge of scouting locations and booking our venues, planning our food and lodging, composing and arranging music, creating and distributing PR materials, and so much more!
Your contribution goes directly to the production costs of the tour. Lodging is our biggest expense, but we also need funds for food, sturdy instrument cases, a reprint of our CD, and a videographer, photographer, and video editor.
We hope you'll consider contributing to our project, which benefits our young musicians, the community's conservation efforts, and the trees!
Many thanks,
The Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble
Risks and challenges
Of course, unfortunate events can occur. Most of our shows will take place outdoors, and as such will be beholden to good weather. We've planned as best as we can for this: We've chosen to use smaller, more weatherproof and outdoor friendly harps, and we've planned for the best time of year, weather-wise.
The smaller, sturdier harps will also lower the risk damaging our precious, expensive, and irreplaceable larger harps, which we'll use during some of our indoor concerts.
There's also the possibility of a musician falling sick. Well, we are an ensemble! With 12-17 harpists on any given day of the concert series, there'll be enough music to go around no matter what!
In fact, the benefit of being a harp ensemble means that if we have a harpist fall ill, or a car break down on the way up, or if an instrument becomes damaged, it's likely that another ensemble member or their family will be able to step in and help!
All of that said, we are still at risk for banana slug attacks!
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Funding period
- (30 days)