Jill Rogoff

My first exposure to the harp was listening in my early childhood to recordings by the Irish singer/harper Mary O’Hara*. I never dreamed that I would ever play a similar instrument. Then, in the late 1980s, a colleague began importing small French harps (22 strings) into Israel, and I thought… why not? I began playing the harp as an accompaniment to my singing of traditional music from various cultures, gradually developing my own – sometimes rather idiosyncractic -- approach to the instrument, based on the premise that less is usually more. Now I use it for my medieval and Renaissance repertoire as well.

I am now playing my third harp (made by Amit Tiefenbrunn, Israel) – still only 22 strings – though I dream of a Salvi* Livia (Special Edition) that I saw in Basel, Switzerland. I have taken my harp right around the world, singing and playing to a wide variety of audiences, and am always especially moved by the responses of children to this lovely instrument.