Main fundraiser photo

New Commissions and New Album for Harp Duo

Donation protected
Our project is to commission, record, and perform new works for Harp Duo.  

*Choose a donation category:

Option 1. Donation just because you love us

Option 2. Two pieces, 10 minutes each (sheet music) - $50


Details:

The funds we receive will firstly go to our composers. Other funds raised will help cover the costs of recording and mastering, digital streaming services, photography and album art. 

We will be professionally recording the new works for an EP album, which will be released digitally. Our duo will be taking professional headshots with a photographer from Denton, Texas to use for our EP album and for marketing purposes on multiple social media platforms. Additionally, we will be commissioning a new art piece for the cover of the EP album by an artist in Beijing, China. 


The project:


We are very excited to collaborate with composers Kyle Gordon (from California) and Minho Yoon (from Korea)

Our ultimate goal is to peak interest in composing and performing new works for harp duo. We established this project, New Strings Attached, with a mission to further develop the repertoire available for our professional harp duo, as well as provide collaborative opportunities for composers to write for this instrumentation. We believe it is important to contribute to the new works available for harp duo, and strive for these works to become standard in the preexisting duo repertoire. Because of our relationships with these three composer colleagues, we strongly feel that each piece will be written with unique perspective and original sound. 

We hope that our project will reach and inspire an audience including other harpists and musicians, composers, and music appreciators/benefactors. 

Read More about the Harpists and the Composers below!

Haley Hodson is a harpist and educator based in Dallas, Texas. She is an active freelance harpist and can be heard playing with groups such as the Allen Philharmonic and the Lone Star Wind Orchestra. Haley received her master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her bachelor's degree from the University of North Texas. Haley is a full-time faculty member of the notable Frisco ISD harp program where she teaches harp in a public school classroom setting to students ranging from 6th to 12th grade. Haley also serves on the board of the American Harp Society in Dallas. Recently, Haley has published several harp ensemble arrangements that are available through Lyon & Healy as well as Harp Column. 

Sonja Westberg is a freelance harpist, maintaining an active performing and teaching schedule in San Antonio, Texas. She has performed both locally and internationally - from Texas and California, all the way to India and Southeast Asia. Sonja currently holds the Principal Harp position with the McKinney Philharmonic Orchestra, based out of North Texas. Additionally, she performs with the Santa Fe Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, and El Paso Symphony. Sonja received both her Master of Music degree and Bachelor of Music degree in harp performance from the University of North Texas, where she studied with Dr. Jaymee Haefner. She has a related field in Music Entrepreneurship and a minor in Hospitality Management.

Haley and Sonja quickly became friends as founding members of the UNT HarpBeats, performing across the globe in destinations such as New Orleans, Chicago, and Hong Kong. Notable performances include playing as one of the featured ensembles for the 13th World Harp Congress, as well as the prestigious Lyon & Healy Summer Concert Series. The pair soon began collaborating as a harp duo, continuing to explore and perform chamber music in the DFW Metroplex. Additionally, the duo worked with prestigious composer Paul Patterson to perform the U.S. premiere of his Cantonese Images, a significant work displaying the duo’s virtuosity and musicality. Future projects include releasing an EP album in 2021, featuring newly commissioned compositions for harp duo written by young, international composers. 


A native of Seoul, Korea, Minho Yoon (b.1986) is a composer, pianist, and music educator. He studied composition at Hanyang University in his hometown and holds a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Texas at Austin. He has served adjunct faculty in composition at Austin Community College, He is a director of music program and orchestra at Sirisantissok Witthaya School and C.E.L.L. School in Thailand. 
As a composer, Dr. Yoon enjoys working comfortably in many genres, including chamber, orchestral, and electronic music. His own unique voice draws from baroque music, the aesthetic of Webern and neoclassicism, the compositional technique of Bartók and Stravinsky, Ligeti’s late works, the sound of post-spectralism, abstract painting, French impressionism, Jazz, and popular music.


Kyle Gordon is a Los Angeles based composer/arranger whose inventive and genre-fusing style is quickly gaining recognition in the symphonic world.  With a background in classical, jazz, folk, pop, and rock music, Kyle is always exploring the connections between traditional and contemporary music styles. In 2019, Kyle joined the esteemed team of copyists and orchestrators at Joann Kane Music Service where he began orchestrating and engraving for film. Working on titles such as Star Wars IX, Frozen 2,  The Simpsons, and BBC Seven Worlds, he had the opportunity to learn from some of today’s orchestral masters. In addition to his work in film and in the concert hall, Kyle has worked as an arranger with esteemed producer Jimmy Haslip arranging and orchestrating several albums with more to come.
A proponent of melodic, harmonically-rich music, Kyle’s work as an arranger has thrilled concert going audiences.  In addition to his writing, Kyle performs regularly as a bassist, mandolinist, and conductor. In 2018, he was invited to perform a newly penned arrangement alongside legendary bassist Jeff Bradetich at Carnegie Hall. In 2017, Kyle was awarded the Sherman/Barsanti inspiration award at the University of North Texas for his project “Old Sights/New Sounds” which featured exciting new scores to accompany silent films by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.  Old Sights/New Sounds has been developed and refined over the years and is now reintroduced as Symphonic Mayhem!


Websites to check out!

https://linktr.ee/haleyhodsonharp 

http://www.sonjawestbergharp.com 

https://www.gordoncomposition.com 

Listen:

https://soundcloud.com/minho_yoon/day-trip-for-fourteen-players 




Check out our album cover!

Fundraising team (2)

Haley Rose Hodson
Organizer
Raised $1,027 from 8 donations
Denton, TX
Sonja Westberg
Team member
Raised $135 from 3 donations

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