Category: Art

Top 10 Photos of 2014

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I guess I’m one of those people who like a Top 10 List – what can I say?

2014 was a pretty decent year. It had some fun pockets of rising high, but it also had the plunges. These may not be the best photos of the year literally, but the sentiments that go along with them are. Also, they’re not numbered in any particular importance.

Weddings!
I played some lovely weddings in 2014, solo harp, or with my cellist friend Maria. This is a photo that I use on my new promotional postcard, taken by Malcom Smith.

wedding harpist
wedding harpist

Therapeutic Bedside Music
I began Level 2 in the Harp for Healing Program to become a Certified Clinical Musician (CCM). Right now I play weekly at Highline Hospital in Burien. 2015 is the year I’m looking for paid work in this field. I look very forward to bringing therapeutic to hospitals, hospices, nursing homes and elsewhere and having folks get in touch with me about having harp come to them!

hospice friend

Songwriters Showcase
Back in February I played at Egan’s in Ballard with a small group of three other songwriters. I was immensely pleased to be on the ticket with Cynthia Alexander, Cynthia Marie and Camelia Jade & Mike Antone.

Songwriters Showcase
Songwriters Showcase

Stephen Goes Back To Painting
When I met my husband 10 years ago, he was a full-time illustrator for print advertising, magazines, books, and fine art. Since that time the market for his work has taken a deep plunge and he’s moved to web design, consulting, logo design, marketing… the whole package deal for start-up and small businesses. One of those businesses in early 2014 was Majdor. This client wanted him to paint a piece for the cover of the home page, as well as design the website and other marketing materials. It was wonderful to watch him create art again! Zephyr thought he did a good job too.

Stephen Goes Back to Painting
Stephen Goes Back to Painting

Birthday Recording Session
My Early-March birthday comes at the armpit of winter. The time when snow gets ugly and melted, when the sky constantly drizzles, and when there is only a faint inkling of crocuses starting their accent. It seems like the world is so dull. By February, I begin to feel trapped by winter – but then I turn the calendar and my birthday saves me! With its celebration of cake and kinship, it truly feels like I survived another year! This year, I went to Carkeek Park with my friend Julie Baldridge and picked up flotsom garbage from low-tide. Then, we came back to my place and did a recording session. It was a fabulous day.

Carkeek Park Feather
Carkeek Park Feather

Goodbye Franklin Cat (2007-2014)
Franklin left us the week before Halloween. Franklin (aka Good Buddy, Buddy, Bud, Frank, FranKitty, Franklin Delano RooseKatz) is really really missed. He was slighted his nine lives! Troubled with several health problems, we just couldn’t fix his collapsed lung. He was such a special, gentle cat – never a swipe, claw or hiss. He went out to “In A Silent Way” in the end. We took this photo the day before he died.

Goodbye Franklin Cat
Goodbye Franklin Cat

Now I’m Fine
I am honored, thrilled and left with a loss for words about how grateful I am to be a part of Ahamefule Oluo’s Now I’m Fine. With four amazing shows in early December, we sold out On The Boards before we began. Reviews were terrific and to make maters even more exciting, the album (which I also recorded on this summer) was simultaneously released and has been attracting a lot of positive attention. I didn’t even realize it, but this photo below was chosen to be the cover spread of On The Boards’ season booklet.

Photo of the year (in my opinion!) for Aham Oluo's "Now I'm Fine" (L. to R. - Monica Schley, Evan Flory-Barnes, Bryant Moore, Ahamefule J. Oluo, Soulchilde Bluesun)
Photo of the year (in my opinion!) for Aham Oluo's "Now I'm Fine" (L. to R. - Monica Schley, Evan Flory-Barnes, Bryant Moore, Ahamefule J. Oluo, Soulchilde Bluesun)

Port Townsend Getaway
This is sort of personal, but my husband Stephen and I haven’t had a childless getaway in four years. There’s a lot of reasons for that, I won’t share, but I wanted to post this photo because it captured a certain bliss and spontaneity we’ve been able to retain for 10 years.

Love Port Townsend
Love Port Townsend

Drumming at Folklife
Space Needle. Cute kid on a drum set. Folklife Festival. This photo kicked off summer.

img_8520

Neighborhood Shot
I took this on a random day in the fall, after spending all day cooped up practicing or working on the computer or being mom in the house, this was my 15 minutes to break away outside alone! The afternoon lighting was eerie and peaceful and made me feel very content to live in Seattle, my rainy home.

Eerie Peaceful
Eerie Peaceful

December Concert Calendar

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There is much to be thankful for, and three things I’ve got gratitude for are these upcoming concerts. The month kicks off with a big 4-day show!
Photo of the year (in my opinion!) for Aham Oluo's "Now I'm Fine" (L. to R. - Monica Schley, Evan Flory-Barnes, Bryant Moore, Ahamefule J. Oluo, Soulchilde Bluesun)
Photo of the year (in my opinion!) for Aham Oluo’s “Now I’m Fine” (L. to R. – Monica Schley, Evan Flory-Barnes, Bryant Moore, Ahamefule J. Oluo, Soulchilde Bluesun)
1.
Now I’m Fine
Thurs Dec 3 – Sun Dec 7
tickets and more info at
$25
DEC 4 – 6, 8PM | DEC 7, 5PM
Comedian/musician/captivating storyteller Ahamefule Oluo leads a team of talented musicians in a grand-scale experimental pop opera about keeping it together. Drawing from darkly funny personal stories about illness, despair, and regeneration, Now I’m Fine ranges from intimate to epic, featuring a 17-piece orchestra and a spectacular cast of performers including Okanomodé Soulchilde, Samantha Boshnack, Josh Rawlings, Evan Flory-Barnes, D’Vonne Lewis, myself on harp and many more. Get your tickets now if you plan to come! All four nights will sell out!

“…a master storyteller who has somehow managed to cram approximately 56 tragic, awkward, hilarious, blistering lifetimes into his 30-odd years.”
– The Stranger

AHAMEFULE OLUO is a composer, comedian, and trumpet player. Oluo was the first Artist-in-Residence at Town Hall in Seattle. A longtime writing partner of comedian Hari Kondabolu, he has performed nationally with bands including Das Racist and Hey Marseilles, and is a fixture in the local and national comedy scenes. His garage-jazz quartet Industrial Revelation won the 2014 Stranger Genius Award in the music category.
$23 | $25 WEEK OF SHOW
https://ontheboards.secure.force.com/ticket/#details_a0SF000000AcgZ9MAJ


Waldorf Winter Spiral
2.
Fri, Dec. 19
7:00PM – 7:30PM
Take a magical stroll through a botanical garden. Krukenberg Botanical Garden is hosting a Solstice Stroll through their forest wonderland – LED lights strung on trees, sipping hot cider and yours truly playing harp under covering in a meadow. Gnomes live here! Family friendly.
Kruckeberg Botanic Garden
20312 15th Ave NW, Shoreline, WA 98177
Album Cover design by Luara Moore
Album Cover design by Luara Moore
3.
Sat, Dec. 20
7:00PM – 8:00PM
“Harp Carols” is a self-produced CD celebrating Europe’s music of 15th – 19th Century holiday season. Songs like “Lo How a Rose” “Carol of the Bells” and “Greensleeves” will transport you to a place of ancient calm. I’ll be playing from this Christmas album as well as new original songs for harp + voice.
East West Bookshop

6500 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle, WA

$15

“Harp Carols” CD Available Now

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Album Cover design by Luara Moore
Album Cover design by Luara Moore

Last year, I released a full-length album “Harp Carols” for the Christmas season. This is an album dedicated to my mother Nancy, who had been asking for something like this from me for over a decade – what a wait!

I’ll be performing the album songs live in December (more on that coming up). CDs will be available at a number of gift shops during the Holiday Season, but if you just can’t wait…

You can download “Harp Carols” here for $7 or purchase the disc for $10 on Bandcamp.

“Harp Carols” is a collection of ancient noels on solo harp and features clarinetist Rosalyn DeRoos on the last song. All songs are traditional Christmas carols except track 7, an improvisation on Gabriel Faure’s “Pavane,” and track 10, “Journey to the Magi,” an original tune a la Alice Coltrane with influence by the T.S. Eliot poem. “Harp Carols” celebrates Europe’s music of 15th Century – 19th Century holiday season and will transport you to a place of Old World calm during this winter’s busiest month.

In Studio Summer, A Photo Album

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I’m thrilled about this summer – one of the most gorgeous I recall in Seattle. Now that it’s over, I’m looking back at the studio work I did.

Earlier in the summer, I recorded for Ahamefule Oluo’s “Now I’m Fine” comedic/musical/monologue show (which is coming up in December at On The Boards) over at Sam Anderson’s studio (of Hey Marsailles) as well as a recent exciting invitation to lay down harp tracks for the next Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis album!

I’ve also been in the studio recording for my own album of original songs, practicing with a bunch with lovely women with gorgeous harmonies (with my little girl running around between us). Its been a pretty amazing time.

Here’s a photo album.

He's got some 'splainin' to do
He's got some 'splainin' to do
Sam & Me
Sam & Me
Harp Chart
Harp Chart
In-Studio Selfie at Macklemore & Ryan Lewis'
In-Studio Selfie at Macklemore & Ryan Lewis'

“In the Shadows (of Enchantment)” on Ball of Wax Quarterly

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Julie Baldridge and I recorded a handful of song last spring on my birthday this year. She’s a violinist friend I’ve been playing with for a decade, but she recently moved to San Francisco. We hadn’t played together for quite a while, but all in a short span of time, she was in town, we made plans to play, and on that day I said, “Hey, would you like to record this?”

Most of what we came up with was improvised, like this song – “For Elsie”

We also recorded a song I had previously written, “In the Shadows (of Enchantment)”. I was so pleased. Julie followed the harp so well, but of course she would – just moments before I pressed record she said to me, “half of music is listening.”

You can now hear “In the Shadows (of Enchantment)” on Ball of Wax Quarterly. It appears on BoW 36 and it also got a little review here.

I’m also playing on July 19 for the Ball of Wax Children’s Concert at Fremont Abbey at noon. It should be a hoot.

The Enchantments
The Enchantments

Three Short Poems

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Inspired by the recent host of the AWP in Seattle, I’m revisiting some poems. These two poems were published last summer in RASP Anthology

A Blessing (Sunflower)

May you continue to give graces
And bloom again next year.
The bride will want to see you
Growing tall in the golden field
May your head be high
And small creatures
Lift you up with their sweetness
Though they may crawl through life
We are all born with wings

Brown County, 1909

Trouble in the kitchen
With the skillet
Paul dug the outhouse
Too shallow this time
Got a full coop of
Chickens and children
Sure could use a whiskey
But I’m pregnant again

This poem I found while going through some writing circa 2006. It sort of resonates with the narrative brevity of the other two:

(Untitled)

A Hopi woman’s life
is now a radio story, her people
belong to the air
like her loom shaft, that she presses down
to even out the wool
she hopes the truth
will be straight.

There’s a Racer Inside Me

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Sometimes, I write fan mail. Yes, I do! Who doesn’t like positive vibrations? Last year I wrote to Regina Specktor. No response. Of course, I don’t really expect to hear back from these busy full-time artists that don’t know me. That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised this week when I heard back from someone I reached out to!

I wrote to Claudia Schmidt, seasoned singer/songwriter and prolific folk and jazz recording artist from the Midwest. Here’s my email to her below and her thoughtful response:

January 6, 2014

Dear Claudia,

I came upon your music by pleasant surprise. To me, it was magic really. If you don’t mind indulging me here, I’d like to share the story with you.

It was this last October. I was in the car in the middle of the night. I had just dropped my husband off at Sea-Tac airport so he could fly to New England and move his mother into assisted living. It was an emotionally heavy departure and a surreal feeling to be awake and functioning at 4:30 in the morning. Our 2 ½ year old daughter was in the back seat, barely awake, piecing together the family tree aloud with her little baby voice. It was still pitch black as we drove north to our Seattle home. Then, around the curve of 1-5 the lights of the city appeared. I was listening to KEXP and your song “Persephone’s Song” came on. That song was exactly the journey of that drive for me. Persephone and Demeter, the mother and daughter. The black departure into the unknown underworld.

As a harpist, hearing the harp played always catches my ear. I turned up the music. I wasn’t sure if you were singing and playing? Who is this harpist? What is this song? I was hypnotized. We girls were quiet in the darkness as we listened to you sing “I need my rainy days.” We were on the edge of our own rainy days, the ones that make Seattle iconic, as the onset of another Pacific Northwest winter would soon begin.

Since that wee morning, your album “Bend in the River” gets plenty of play in my house. My daughter fondly, and simply, calls you Claudia, as if she knows you personally. Your voice is a familiar friend, kid friendly, and inspiring to this mama. Thank you. I love how my little child runs around the house singing “there’s a racer inside me, I can’t slow her down!”

If I may ask, I would be very pleased to purchase any arrangement you have of “Persephone’s Song” – it would be a great gift in fact.

Blessings this new year,

Monica Schley
Seattle, Washington

mother & daughter
mother & daughter

… and the response…

January 7, 2014

Dear Monica,

Thank you so much for the lovely letter. You really took me into the scenario!  My friend Andrea Stern, a Mpls. musician, played on that.  I will ask if she has a chart that I could make a copy of and send you.  I’m glad you found the song.  I still sing it often.

As it happens, I will be in Seattle on Sunday April 6 at the Royal Room. It’s a bit later show than usual, they had an event already. So I won’t start till 8:30pm, a late start for my peeps these days!  …. And I hope you can come (I promise I will do Persephone for you). I am also celebrating the release of a new Red House CD on that trip. Lots going on!  Be well, and I hope to see you soon.

Peace,
Claudia

Claudia Schmidt
Claudia Schmidt

It’s Here! (digitally)

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Album Cover design by Luara Moore
Album Cover design by Luara Moore

I am so excited to announce that my first full-length album “Harp Carols” is now complete for this year’s Christmas season. This is an album dedicated to my mother Nancy, who has been asking for something like this from me for over a decade. You can download it for $7 or purchase the disc for $10.

“Harp Carols” is a collection of ancient noels and features clarinetist Rosalyn DeRoos on the last song. All songs are traditional Christmas carols except track 7, an improvisation on Gabriel Faure’s “Pavane,” and track 10, “Journey to the Magi,” an original tune a la Alice Coltrane with influence by the T.S. Eliot poem.

“Harp Carols” CD Coming Soon…

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I am so happy to announce that I’ve got a new CD coming out! December 1st is the estimated arrival date for the physical CD to go on sale, digital downloads will be made available the week before.

“Harp Carols” is a collection of ancient noels on solo harp, ten in all. Related to that, there will be a CD release concert, December 21st. Please join me for a special twilight concert on the darkest day of the year.

You are invited:
HARP CAROLS CD RELEASE, 4:30pm (winter solstice twilight)
Harpist, Monica Schley, has recorded a Christmas album of ancient noels on harp including “Greensleeves”, “Carol of the Bells”, “Venite Adoramus” and “O Tannenbaum.” An intimate twilight concert will be held on Saturday, December 21st, the Winter Solstice, at Muse Coffee Co. in Seattle (Queen Anne). 4:30pm. Clarinetist RosalynnDeRoos will special guest. The album will be available for sale at $10, with digital download for $7.

in the Rose Garden, photo: Malcolm Smith
in the Rose Garden, photo: Malcolm Smith