Big Strings, Small World: Strings Without Borders – ft. Maria Cleary, Diana Rowan, Winnie Wong & Colm Ó Riain

A Welsh harp, an Irish harp, a guzheng and a violin. Four string virtuosos with their hands and feet in multiple worlds come together for an evening of musical exchange. Drawing threads and strings from a rich tapestry of histories and geographies – Chinese, Irish, period, classical, jazz, blues, Middle Eastern, Balkan – Maria Cleary, Diana Rowan, Winnie Wong and Colm Ó Riain, all expert improvisers in their fields, explore our world through music.

Featuring:
Colm Ó Riain – violin
Winnie Wong – guzheng
Diana Rowan – Irish harp, piano
Maria Cleary – Welsh harp

Harpist Maria Cleary is noted for her improvisatory skills and ingenious continuo playing, combined with a particular care to creating a beautiful sound on a perilous instrument. Specializing in historical harps, Maria performs on medieval harps, the Italian arpa doppia, the Spanish arpa de dos ordenes, and the 18th century harpe organisée. She promotes a pedal technique that was exclusively used on harps with a single-action pedal mechanism and has developed several innovative tunings for performing medieval and renaissance music. Maria regularly performs with Davide Monti under the name Arparla, a violin and harp duo specializing in repertoire from the 17th to 19th centuries.

Born in Ireland and raised the child of an Irish diplomat, Diana Rowan has traveled, lived and performed on six continents. As a natural outgrowth of this inspiration, her music interweaves global music, art, spirituality and mythology. Diana is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area and holds a PhD in Music Theory (world harp composition techniques), plus an MM in Piano Performance (classical). She presents rave-review workshops, lectures worldwide, and runs Bright Knowledge Academy, an online college for dedicated musicians.

Winnie Wong began her training on the guzheng, a Chinese plucked zither, in 1982 at the age of four and a half under the expertise of guzheng virtuoso, Ms. Weishan Liu. At the age of five, she had her first debut. Throughout her career, she has been invited to perform at various conventions and concerts in Reno, Miami, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Diego, and at concert halls such as Masonic Auditorium, Herbst Theatre, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Davies Symphony Hall.

Hailed as a “genius fiddler” by Mike Scott of The Waterboys, Irish-born violinist and composer Colm O’Riain is an accomplished improviser in multiple genres. In the USA, which he currently calls home, he has enthralled audiences on stages as diverse as CBGB’s in New York to Fillmore West and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. He has performed at festivals and venues throughout the world from Alaska to Argentina, Sweden to Vietnam.

Admission: $20. Doors at 7:00pm. Show at 7:30pm. All ages welcome.

*Additional tickets will be available for purchase at the door at 7:00pm the day of the event.

Join the conversation at the Poppy – volunteer with us! Click here.