Southern Maryland Celtic Festival Harp Competition 2014

April 26, 2014 marks the 36th year for the oldest Celtic celebration in Maryland!

The festival is scheduled on the last Saturday of April every year from 10 AM to 6 PM, rain or shine, on the 560-acre Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum.  With more than 50 clans and societies and three performing stages offering continuous music and dance, it will be a fun and full day.  There is a Celtic marketplace and after the closing ceremonies, stay for the evening ceilidh.

We are so excited to have Jo Morrison judging the Harp Competition this year.

Jo is nationally known for her evocative interpretation of Scottish and Irish music on the harp.  Having spent several months in 2005 teaching, writing music, and performing on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, Jo's knowledge and understanding of the Celtic genre puts her in great demand as performer, adjudicator, and teacher across the country.

When not performing, Jo spends her time teaching harp privately and in classes and workshops, and composing and arranging Celtic music for the Celtic harp. She also teaches harp at Common Ground on the Hill in Westminster, Maryland, and taught at the Ohio Scottish Arts School in 2002, the Somerset Harp Festival for several years, and at various workshops around the country. She taught on the Isle of Lewis in July of 2007. She is currently Vice-President for the Washington Area Folk Harp Society.  Jo is also trained as a Certified Music Practitioner with the Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP).

Jo has five CDs - her debut album, The Three Musics (1998), as well as A Waulking Tour of Scotland (2000), Christmas Gifts (2003), is a collection of carols from around the world, By Request (2004) is Jo's musical reply to the oft-posed question, "When are you going to record that tune?" and  her 2008 CD of all original music. Flights of Fantasy.   In addition, she has published three popular collections of harp arrangements, "The Three Musics of the Celtic Harp", "The Morrison Scottish Repertoire Book", and "The Beginning Harper's Tunebook," which is rapidly becoming a standard for beginning folk harpers.

Keep an eye on the CSSM website for more information as it forms up (although there is a start time posted it might change to assure everyone has the best day possible) - but definitely plan to participate as a competitor, a volunteer, or as an observer - we need them all!