Grover, my Camac Athena harp, was born in France in 2015. He’s 2 years old now. Back then, he was being built by the awesome folks of Camac Harp Factory in Paris, France. Today they have just announced the creation of 2 brand new harp sets that will make their debut at this year’s World Harp Congress event in Hong Kong, China happening on July 5th – 13th. These sets of harps are known as the Art Nouveau and Canopèe series.
https://vimeo.com/224300473
https://vimeo.com/224301279
Aren’t those harps beautiful? Camac harps did a fantastic job creating those instruments with great care and excellent skill. There are 2 harps in each set. Out of the 2 harps from each set, I love the Water Gilding version of the Art Nouveau the best. This is an absolute eye popper that’s covered with pure gold all over the base, the pillar, and along the edges of the neck (top part of the harp). What I love about the harp is the gold design shown in front of the knee block (the narrow part of the harp). The natural version is exactly like the gilded version, but without all that gold plating. Now when was the last time a harp is seen to have that kind of a design in front of the knee block? Possibly never. Because this is the first time anyone has ever made a harp to have such beautiful designs at the front of the knee block.
The Canopèe is made from a whopping 5,000 pieces combining together to form one big masterpiece. It has beautiful floral designs stretching from the bottom to the top and decorated with mother-of-pearl. Usually the harp is made from pine wood or maple. But not the Canopèe and the New Nouveau. The Canopèe is made from ebony and pear wood while the New Nouveau is made from European cherry wood and strips of American walnut.
Can you imagine how expensive these harps are? It’ll both cost more than what I had to pay Grover for when I bought him from the Virginia Harp Center 10 months ago.
Sherry Konkus lives in Owosso, MI. She is the proud owner of the Camac Athena EX Concert Grand Harp named “Grover” and Camac Mademoiselle named “Ernie.” She’s also the proud author of The Punisher Harp Zone. Sherry is the one who came up with the idea of portraying The Punisher from Marvel Comics as the punishing harpist who plays the harp in memory of his family who was killed by the mob years ago.