The Triskela Harp Trio includes, from left, Shawna Spiteri, Portia Diwa and Diana Stork. Courtesy photo.
LAKEPORT – Two and a half years after their last appearance in Lake County, the Bay Area-based Triskela Harp Trio performed in another concert at Lakeport's Soper-Reese Community Theatre.
Triskela – featuring Diana Stork, Portia Diwa and Shawna Spiteri – performed mostly traditional Celtic music at its October 2008 concert, which took place not long after the theater reopened for community performances.
Returning this past April 17, the trio would offer what theater Artistic Director Bert Hutt said would be the “total experience” of both world and Celtic music.
The theater itself, Hutt noted, was finally getting on the map as a performance venue.
A large crowd was on hand for the night of entertainment, which was opened up by the local band, “Uncorked.”
Uncorked – which performs locally at venues including the Corkman's Clipper Irish Pub in Clearlake – includes Eleanor Cook, Andi Skelton, Teale Love, Don Coffin, Dan Harris, Dennis Hadley and Greg Bushta.
The group got the theater warmed up with an invigorating short set of songs that included the traditional Irish “Blarney Pilgrim” and the “Swallowtail Jig,” as well as French Canadian and gypsy songs.
When Triskela came on the stage, Spiteri – who is the group's main singer and introduces the songs, besides offering some comic relief – noted they had received “rock star treatment” in their return to Lakeport, where she said they had had a great time in 2008.
The harpists began with “Wedding Bells,” written by Stork, the group's main songwriter, which can be heard on their Myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/triskelacelticharptrio. Next, they moved into the traditional “O'Carolan's Welcome” and “The Butterfly,” by the famed Irish harpist, Turlough O'Carolan.
They then performed the traditional Venezuelan “Moliendo Cafe,” or “grinding coffee.” During the performance the group would discuss the South American harp tradition, which Stork has studied in person in trips through those countries.
Transitioning back to a traditional Scottish ballad, “Fhear a Bhata,” Stork brought out a homemade rain stick to recreate the sound of waves. The song tells the story of a woman watching the ocean for her husband's return from sea. “Fare ye well, wherever ye be,” they sang, as the woman in the song realizes her husband is never going to return.
The set continued through three more songs written by Stork: “Distant Star” – which Stork wrote for Diwa when she was graduating from college – “Jump Like A Rabbit,” written for a performance with the Black Brothers, and “Morrison's Jig.”
Next was “St. Martin's Tango,” a song Stork wrote based on a trip she and her husband took to Venezuela, recalling how they danced on a beach, and then the uptempo Paraguayan “Milonga para Amar.”
Before the set finished, Triskela played the “Abbey Reel,” the “Imaginary Reel,” the “Real Reel” and “Si do Mhaimeo,” a song about an older, wealthy woman and her younger suitor.
During the performance, the harpists took turns trading off playing other instruments. Spiteri would play the bodhran, a small handheld Irish drum, and maracas, while Stork also took turns on the bodhran and the flute, and Diwa on the tin whistle. All three also sang wonderfully together. Hutt joined in at various times on the bodhran, spoons and bones.
Following a brief intermission, Triskela got back into the flow with the traditional Irish tune “Sword's Castle” and Swallowtail Jig.”
The three women then shared a little about their unique harps.
Stork's harp is made of walnut and was crafted by a Colorado harp maker in the lever or neo-Celtic style. Some of its strings cost as much as $50 each and are crafted in France. It took half a year to build.
Diwa's harp is older; she purchased it used 18 years ago. It has 36 strings plus, as most of them do, has sharpening levers. It is a more traditional, smaller Celtic shape.
Spiteri's harp was made by an Oregon harp maker. It's made of maple and is a Gothic shape, which is taller and more pointed.
Harpists think of their harps like children, and develop strong relationships with their harp makers, they explained.
Their next songs were traditional Swedish “polskas,” bright, sparkling songs from a country that doesn't have a well-established harp tradition. Nevertheless, the song style translated well onto the harp.
Diwa led on her own composition, “Para los Muertos,” complete with Spanish lyrics sung by Spiteri.
Next followed a set of traditional Breton harp songs.
“These are quite ancient pieces,” Spiteri said of the short Breton pieces.
The songs, she said, were used for traditional circle dances, which Stork and Diwa demonstrated and Spiteri began to play.
“They're Celtic but they're kinda different,” Spiteri said of the songs, which had a Medieval feel.
The Breton songs featured the harpists trading off their harps for the flute, bodhran, tin whistle, tambourine and even Spiteri on the washboard.
On the traditional Appalachian folk song “Shady Grove,” Hutt played the spoons and Spiteri, who continued on the washboard, brought in the audience to sing the chorus.
Triskela finished up the set with a traditional Afghani tune, “Caravan,” which they learned from a German harpist just a few days after Sept. 11, 2001.
Spiteri said that learning the song was very healing in the wake of the national tragedy.
“The music isn't political,” she said, with Stork adding that it's hard to hate a people after you've played their music.
Stork said that music opens up peaceful avenues of communication and coexistence; on a trip she took to Turkey, she couldn't speak the language, but she said people embraced her and the music.
Spiteri told the crowd, “We just loved being here so much,” before they played “Caravan,” which had a distinctly Eastern feel.
A standing ovation kept them from ending the concert after the Afghani song, so they sat down to play two more tunes, including the traditional Celtic ballad, “The Willow Tree,” a stirringly beautiful song with the lyrics, “The shadows are falling, the night has come.”
“This is really a jewel in the area,” Stork said of the Soper-Reese after they finished the song.
“They're doing it the right way,” she added of the group in charge of running and renovating the theater. She said it's good to see a venue to support local music.
The show ended with another song written by Stork, the Tolkien-inspired “Dark Horse,” which tells the story of Aragorn and the horse given to him to pursue the kidnappers of the Hobbits Merry and Pippin. The song has each of the three harps portraying different characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy – Aragorn, Legolas the elf and Gimli the dwarf. That song also can be heard at the group's Myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/triskelacelticharptrio.
To learn more about Triskela, visit their Myspace page, their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Triskela-Harp-Trio/131188660008?ref=ts or the Web site, www.elefunt.com/triskela/home.html.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
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