2022 TUTORS
                                  NANCY THYM

NANCY THYM is Germany's leading storyteller/harper/singer. She is one of the rare performers who successfully weaves harp music, song and stories together into a spellbinding web of enchantment which transports the listeners into a magical world.


A native of California who has lived in Germany since 1978, Nancy studied Theater, Dance and Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley before going on to receive her Master's Degree in Folklore from the University of California at Los Angeles. (During this time she built her rod puppet "Jack" with which she enhances her children's programs.) She deepened her knowledge of traditional music and narrative with field studies of singers and storytellers in Scotland and Ireland.
Nancy has concentrated on medieval and Scottish songs and ballads and the role of the harp in traditional narrative and song as well as unique areas such as the repertoire of the wandering German hook harp players and the music of the Norwegian Krogharpe.

Most often the harp plays an important role in her stories which range from medieval romances and lays to traditional tales from the German and Celtic regions. Music and songs from the respective countries and periods are carefully selected and performed on appropriate instruments from her vast collection of historical harps.

Nancy is a regular lecturer and faculty member at the Historical Harp Conference & Workshop held every summer in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is often invited to give workshops on the use of harp and other instruments with storytelling. Through the Museum and Archive for Harp History in Freising, Germany she provides information on historical harps for harp builders, players, journalists, museum collections, libraries, etc. She has published numerous articles on the history of the harp and has lectured and performed at many international harp conferences and festivals.

Because she finds contrasts exciting, she also sings early Rock & Roll and Blues songs to the harp. Harp and Rock & Roll? A rather unusual musical style for an instrument which is usually expected to produce "angelic" tones! But Nancy has worked extensively with Rock & Roll and Blues, which she accompanies in a rhythmic, almost dance-like manner.

BETH KOLLÉ 


BETH KOLLÉ is a Seattle-based harper who has been a presenter/performer at many harp conferences and retreats in the United States and in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Scotland and Ireland.

 

Her focus has been Nordic and Celtic traditional music, and she has performed with traditional folk music and ‘trad-rock’ bands. In addition to teaching harp, Beth teaches Irish penny whistle and flute, and Nordic folk dance.

 

She has produced eleven books of harp and flute arrangements and five albums. In more normal times, Beth tours with the HARPA Scotland group, a group of professional harpers who perform for charitable foundations in Scotland every other year.

 

Beth received her degree in Music with a minor in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle, and spent two years working and traveling in Norway with side-trips to Sweden and Denmark. One of the oddest things that happened to her during her time in Norway was teaching Norwegian folk dance to Norwegians!

 

In her workshops, Beth enjoys breaking things down to manageable steps so that everyone, of every level of playing, can be successful. Her workshops on Nordic music give the participants a quick grounding in the historical influences for traditional music, answering in part the common question she hears: ‘Why does it sound so different?’
JAIMEE JOROFF


A competitive Irish step dancer who traded her dance shoes for harp strings, Jaimee is a third-generation classical harpist and first-generation Celtic harper.  Hailing from Massachusetts, she grew up immersed in Irish culture, music and folklore shared with her at home and during summers spent in Ireland with her godmother, a poet who lives at the base of Ben Bulben. Jaimee studied with renowned Irish harper Áine Minogue, and has taken classes with a variety of teachers abroad. She is also a certified Therapeutic Harp Practitioner with the International Harp Therapy Program and has worked with Alzheimer’s and Dementia patients. 

She is currently on the faculty of the Comhaltas Boston Music School. 

Jaimee performs across New England at private and public events. Her recordings include albums with the Progressive Rock Band Telergy. She teaches individual and group lessons for beginning and intermediate players of all ages, and is a regular instructor at the Spanish Peaks Harp Retreat.  

Her instruction is tailored to each student’s needs and preferences, including options to learn by ear or from the notated page. Classes are taught in a relaxed, no-pressure manner focusing on the joy and history of the music.