08/2022
Here I aim to tell and revise the story of Harping for Harmony (HHF), from my own harp discovery in 1991. This story is pieced together from a clutter notebooks, photos, clippings, calendars, and correspondence. Materials began to appear on this website in 1999, but there have been several revisions. As of date given above, this is a work in slow progress, a collection of notes and materials selected from pages that will eventually be deleted.
Some Mission Priorities:
Peace: I’ve tried to promote peace education and international travel by myself and other volunteer musicians to troubled and war-torn places. Sponsored travels have included El Salvador, Haiti, Russia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, and Colombia.
Childhood: I and many others have provided school, after-school and community projects. Harps are so very attractive to children, and so beneficial! Especially important are concerns for children at-risk of violence, abuse, or neglect; children of war; and refugees. Many harpists have been involved with children through the HHF Millennium Harpers project from the year 2000 to about 2010.
Livelihood: If you eat, you are involved in agriculture. I’ve been involved in promoting ecological farming, or sustainable agriculture. However, livelihood is also a concern for farmers, teachers, nurses, caring professionals, as well as craftsmen, laborers, harpists and other musicians. All are vocations. I and HHF support the right of each person to a livelihood, while also honoring the generous contributions and great service of unpaid volunteers.
My backstory … My Journal by John Lozier
Monongalia Friends Meeting Traveling Minute - .pdf .jpg
As recently as 2019, I traveled many times to Venezuela and Colombia. The Baquiano program grew out of visits back and forth in collaboration with Hildo Ariel Aguirre Daza in Bogota, Colombia.
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The Millennium Harper Project awarded honorific "titles" to many harpists who declared live harp "quests" between 2000 and 2008.
ARPATUR ... ARPATUR, Venezuela 2005, ... Colombia 2014
harp-making ...
school programs...
international projects: El Salvador, Russia, Haiti, Cyprus, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia
John's Journal ...
Other projects: Ronald McDonald, Honduras, Academia, Nicolas 1, Pedro, Nicolas 2, Geronimo, Silvio ...
Almost Heaven Harp Circle has been meeting monthly since ... date.
Spanish Language Instructional Enrichment Program:
Live Latin American Style Harp Music and Conversational Spanish
I have begun offering a Spanish language instructional enrichment program, featuring live Latin American style harp music and conversational Spanish for middle and high school Spanish classes. Latin harp style is my special devotion; I speak good Spanish; read books in Spanish for fun, and travel in Latin America every year or two. A retired cultural anthropologist, I served K-12 education under contract with the WV Department of Education for more than 10 years. Specifically, my work with WVDOE has been with Learn and Serve projects and with after-school programs (21st Century Learning Centers).
Many people do not realize that the harp is very popular in Latin America, especially in Venezuela, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Mexico. My program provides a mix of live harp music in the Latin styles; questions and answers in Spanish; audio and video materials and other cultural information. Learning objectives include motivating the study of other cultures as well as the learning of the Spanish language. The program includes presentation of folk songs with transcriptions and translations, a tool for building vocabulary.
Please explore this website for more information, especially here and here. Harping for Harmony Foundation is dedicated to promoting "harmony and community, locally and globally, through harp music." Since 1995, projects have touched on topics of peace, childhood, livelihood, health, and democracy.
In the course of a typical school day, the program can be delivered to 5 or 6 classes, to 150 students or more.
I invite Spanish teachers, school administrators, and advocates for education to get in touch with me.
Press Release
Harp Concert May 1 Celebrates Beginning of Summer
Morgantown, WV, April 10, 2009. Local harpists will offer a May Day concert at 7:30 PM on Friday, May 1, 2009, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Morgantown. Featured guest harpist is Leah Marie Trent, from Ronceverte, WV. Local performers are Eric Harshbarger, John Lozier, and the Almost Heaven Harp Circle directed by Cindy Lewellen.
This year's concert will benefit a harp school in Barinas, Venezuela, and other programs of Harping for Harmony Foundation (HHF). Tickets are $10 for adults, two for $15, and free for children under 12.
Leah Marie Trent plays the large concert pedal harp, as well as the smaller Irish, Celtic, and lap harps. She taught at Alderson Broadus in Philippi several years ago, then moved to Oklahoma City. There she built the harp program at the Classen School for Advanced Studies and created St. Patrick's Irish Harp Orchestra, before returning to West Virginia in 2006. More recently, she has taught harp for Irish Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins.
Eric Harshbarger started harping 12 years ago at the age of 4, when John Lozier played at his preschool. From his first harp, made by Lozier, he moved up to a Lyon and Healy Troubadour harp, and then the pedal harp, studying with Cindy Lewellen and with Christine Mazza. He performed with orchestras at Suncrest Middle School and Morgantown High School, and is a member of Mazza's Morgantown Harp Ensemble.
John Lozier performs music from many lands, with special attention to harp music of Latin America in general. His preferred instrument is a Venezuelan arpa llanera. He and like-minded others founded Harping for Harmony Foundation in 1995.
The Almost Heaven Harp Circle, under the direction of Cindy Lewellen, meets on the third Thursday of each month at the Church of the Brethren, 464 Virginia Avenue. The group consists of musicians of all ages and skill levels, and newcomers are always welcome. Look for information online.
Venezuela has a long history of strong support for folk and classical music and arts. In 2008, in Barinas, Venezuela, Lozier found not one, but two, harp schools! One teaches only the harp to relatively advanced students. The other serves a wider range of folk-cultural interests, with dancing, singing, and puppetry as well as harp and other instruments. Lozier's annual visits to Venezuela since 2005 have come to be known as ARPATUR (harp tour), engaging local people as well as a few intrepid internationals. The ARPATUR collaboration involves Venezuelan singer-songwriter and professor of agriculture Adolfo Cardozo and Caracas lawyer and pedal harpist Fernando Guerrero. ARPATUR-IV will take place in June, 2009, an expression of HHF's mission statement: to promote harmony and community, locally and globally, through harp music.
Another HHF project, started in 2000, is the Millennium Harper Awards. This award recognizes harpists around the world for their completion of a "worthy quest" involving live performance, local public service, and personal growth. Through this program, HHF has given away more than 40 small harps.
Other projects of HHF since its formation in 1995 involve support for harp teacher Lis Joostens in Honduras; training and support for harpmaker Rigoberto Hernandez in Guatemala; and travel support for Patrice Fisher to Guatemala and for John Kovac to Cyprus. In earlier years, John Lozier has traveled with his harp to El Salvador, Russia, Haiti, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Tickets are available in advance or at the door. Send order to HHF, 345 Virginia Avenue, Morgantown, WV 26505. You also may call 304-599-8233 or 304-276-5141 or email jl@harpingforharmony.org
More information: http://www.harpingforharmony.org