When one thinks about music on the harp it is usually classical music. Anna O’Connell’s upcoming performance at It’s a Grind on Saturday, July 7, may change your mind. “I have a special interest in doing covers of unexpected music on the harp,” she says. “Having trained classically on the harp, the past few years I have began to experiment with pop music, and now write my own songs as well as cover a quirky variety of popular, indie, and folk in addition to traditional Irish tunes.”
A lifelong resident of Plainsboro, O’Connell graduated from High School South in 2008. “I love Plainsboro and find the local farms, trees, bike paths, and streams to be inspirational,” she says. “My family listens to a lot of music, especially Irish folk music, which of course features the harp quite prominently.”
Her parents, Barbara and Francis, both sang in the church choir at Queenship of Mary Church in Plainsboro. Her father organizes the bell choir. “He picked up the violin after I quit in the fifth grade, and now plays in a community orchestra when he can,” says Anna. He also plays violin at the church.
“I’m pretty smitten by different types of folk and cultural music,” she says. “That probably stems from growing up in a neighborhood surrounded by people of so many different nationalities with such unique and fascinating cultural contributions.”
Her brothers are Patrick, a 2010 graduate of South, and Daniel, a 2011 graduate. “They are also fond of music but save their singing for family gatherings and holidays,” she says. “They don’t tend to sing in public, except when we go caroling to our neighbors and close friends’ houses on Christmas Eve, bearing cookies our dad makes.”
Anna began playing piano in the third grade, and has been involved in choirs for many years. She began playing harp eight years ago — as a freshman at South. “I even had the chance of playing some of the great Russian pieces, such as Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherezade on our tour to Russia my junior year,” she says.
Though she plays covers, O’Connell tends to play a lot of her own music and stretch her creative limits. “Harpists tend to be crafty thinkers and good at picking up textures, because the harp is an instrument filled with so many different colors.”
“I tend to draw inspiration from one of the Marx brothers, Harpo Marx, whose comedic talent matched his excellent harpistry,” she says. “No one else can quite top his curly wig and goofy faces paired with angelic playing. That is some skill.”
She has several postings on Youtube of mostly folk music with some electronica. “But with folk music, it’s less of covering a song, and more of becoming a part of the tradition of that particular song,” she says. “It emerges from a tradition, and every now and again an artist will sink right into the roots of that tradition and remake it entirely.”
O’Connell recently graduated from Providence College with a degree in music education. Choir was her main emphasis at college as she has studied to be a choral director and a music teacher. She was a section leader in the choir at school. “We recently performed at the American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division Conference, a truly unforgettable experience,” she says.
“This past semester I was in a folk and bluegrass band at Providence College,” she says. “It was an exciting experience and taught me a bit about stage presence, which I found to be not altogether that different from performing in a choir.”
She is entering a two year program masters in choral and sacred music at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. “Although I will miss the east coast weather, I am excited to head out west for the next adventure,” she says.
— Lynn Miller
Anna O’Connell, It’s a Grind Coffee House, 7 Schalks Crossing Road, Plainsboro. Saturday, July 7, 8 to 10 p.m. Harp concert. 609-275-2919. www.itsagrind.com.
