Take pretty much everything you thought you knew about harp music and toss it out the window. This is the harp as you’ve never heard it: Folk, Celtic and Latin music, engaging arrangements, imaginatively played, often with vocals as well. Keri Lynn’s performance is full of charm and energy and wit. She calls herself the “harpchick” – and she is performing here at TRU on November 25.

Check out her website and facebook page.

Keri Lynn Zwicker had her humble harp beginnings thirteen years ago busking on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. She has since quietly and steadily evolved into a talented and versatile musician with experience in different realms – orchestral harpist, ethnomusicologist, chamber musician, Celtic singer, cowgirl harper and street performer.

Her unique, original arrangements draw from traditional Celtic, Latin and folk repertoire and ensure that her carbon-fiber harp is always the focus and never the frill. Keri reveals her eclectic taste and proves how just about anything can get “harpified.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb02J0H9qWo[/youtube]

A musician for 25 years, Keri, started as a suzuki piano student at the age of 5. She received a Bachelor of Music with Distinction as a classical pianist, and for the past 13 years, has focused on the harp. At 18, just months after buying her very first little harp, this eager young musician was out harping on Whyte Avenue in Old Strathcona – much to the delight and surprise of those who passed by.

Keri Lynn has been a harpist in David Wilkie’s Cowboy Celtic since 1998. This high-profile position that has taken her across North America as well as across the Atlantic to Scotland numerous times. Keri is probably one of the few harpists in North America that has the opportunity to tour regularly with a band.

This Celtic harpchick is active as a classical musician too – Keri has performed full-length solo pedal harp concerts as well as duo concerts with cello, oboe and flute. She has been hired by the best choirs in Edmonton, including Kokepelli, ProCoro, Cantillon, Madrigal Singers, Ariose, to perform challenging works for solo harp and voices. She plays second harp with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra but often acts as principal. As well she regularly travels to play with Saskatoon and Regina Symphonies as well.

In addition to her Bachelor degree, Keri also has a Master’s in Arts with a focus in Ethnomusicology from the University of Alberta. Her major work concentrated on the resurgence of Cowboy music. Her paper “Nostalgia and the Construction of a Cowboy Classic”, was chosen to be presented at the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Annual International Meeting in 2000 in Toronto.

Keri is active as a private harp instructor at the Alberta Conservatory of Music in Edmonton. Her student ensembles have been on CBC radio, A-Channel Big Breakfast, Global TV and have performed at many venues in Edmonton including on the Winpear stage.