Josh Layne’s visit to Cairns in March ‘24

Josh Layne performs to an enthralled audience at Stratford Library Meeting Room.  

This article needs to be headed by a disclosure on the author’s part: Josh is my long-time hero! So…..

Josh Layne’s concert and workshop was highly anticipated by myself and others from our group. Josh is a harpist of YouTube-fame, Harp-Tuesday-Fame to be more precise…

He has been supplying the harp community with harp inspiration and advice for almost fourteen years and shows no sign of slowing down. He has spoken on everything harp related you can possibly think of and his Harp Tuesday videos are a precious resource, specially if you are a self taught harp player.

In March and April he was on an Australia and New Zealand Tour. Starting in Adelaide, covering Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne and Tasmania before heading off over to a variety of towns in New Zealand.

Josh strikes me as a serial traveller, he seems to be on the road pretty much all the time. At the time of my writing this he’s visiting Germany and neighbouring countries, delighting audience over there.

We were trying out a venue that was new to us and we were a bit anxious about how it would go. We didn’t need to worry. While the acoustics were not top notch, Josh took it all in his stride. The only thing that seem to bother him slightly was the tropical heat: he did not leave the air conditioned space if at all possible. After all, he hails from Canada. Poor guy, it was soooo hot - and humid, of course! Instead of wearing his very neat and smart looking performance clothes we convinced him that it would be perfectly fine for him to play in his shorts and a dress shirt, something he had never done before.

Josh was performing on a concert harp that we supplied him with, a practice all performing harpists are used to. A concert harp is a big beast, you don’t just schlep it onto a plane if you can help it, we are talking about 35 kg or something in that vicinity (its not good for the harps either). Even a broken string before the concert did not phase him, waiting patiently for a new one to arrive. Thank goodness it was not a string that he needed to play a lot during the concert, new strings need days to keep their tuning properly.

The concert was fabulous - Josh is a brilliant performer! He is an excellent harp player and an engaging and funny entertainer.

Josh played a varied, classical repertoire, followed by an encore of something a bit more funky. From what I heard people say everyone loved it. Quite a few members of the audience had not been to a harp concert before, had no idea what a concert harp even looks like… they DO have pedals, who would have thought!!!

And the workshop was equally as good. We chose to have a basic workshop, to make it attractive to harp players at different skill levels. Even the most seasoned players of our group took away something new from the workshop and everyone was highly entertained by Josh.

Thank you Josh! Hopefully we can welcome you again on our shores in the very near future.

and here is a review of the concert by Roman Buszynski from Cairns FM 89.1.

Cairns FM 89.1 Community Radio continues to promote community events. The harp recital by Josh Layne at the Stratford Library on Sunday was one of these events.

Josh Layne has an international reputation. He was supported by the Far North Queensland Harp Connection to visit Cairns…a local group who come together to nurture the harp community. The Harp Connection are to be congratulated in bringing Josh to Cairns for a public recital and workshop.

Josh is world renowned as an extraordinarily gifted harp player and composer. He is based in Canada and so Cairns in March was quite a climatic change!

The harp is far too large to transport. Josh must adapt to a different instrument and climate each time he plays. Cairns High School provided the instrument for this recital.

The audience was transported into the world of Bach and Chopin where adaptions from keyboard to harp gave a magnificent range and tone.

Josh played the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor, normally played on the organ. Josh considered Bach would likely enjoy the harp interpretation. Josh’s recital moved into the famous Chopin Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15 known as the Raindrops Prelude where each raindrop is a single note. The sound of raindrops on the harp is spectacular.

Josh then presented his own composition Uncharted Shores exploring the harps magnificent and unique sounds of water combined with the emotional uncharted journey of Covid. The recital moved beautifully into Piece Symphonique by Henriette Renie. Jsh described Renie’s story as a lone woman in a sea of male composers at the Paris Conservatory in the early 1900’s. She wrote specifically for the harp and explored the incredible diversity of sound available in this beautiful instrument.

The second half of the recital included works from Godefroid, Bach and Walter-Kune. Josh’s performance of Debussy’s Clair de Lune was superb and delighted the audience. He the generously provided an encore, the audience was treated to a funky rag time piece, further evidence of his incredible skill and the diversity of the harp.

It was a privilege to attend this most exhilarating recital by a world-renowned harpist and again congratulation to the Far North Queensland Harp Community.

For those wanting to explore the harp further the Far North Queensland Harp Community has a website for further information. The group welcomes new members as player or supporters.