Suntec S'pore Int'l Convention & Exhibition Centre, 29 July - 2 August 2010
Organised by the Harmonica Aficionados Society (Singapore)
8th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival 2010
Invited Guest Players
Jens Bunge, Germany
Jens Bunge lives in Germany, near Heidelberg, where he works as a teacher. In 1981, when he heard Stevie Wonder's hit "Isn't She Lovely", he began to play the chromatic harmonica. Listening to the LPs of Toots Thielemans, he fell in love with Jazz. In the following years, he performed with local musicians and international artists, e.g. Art Farmer, Barbara Dennerlein and the German Jazz Orchestra, and played his harmonica on all five continents. Jens Bunge appeared at many harmonica events, such as the World Harmonica Festivals in Trossingen, the APHFs in Seoul, Atsugi, Hong Kong and Taipei, the Harmonica Carnival in Genting Highlands and the Highlands Harmonica Festival (Malaysia). A frequent traveler to Singapore, he has played and recorded with local musicians Ruth Ling and Rick Smith. Jens Bunge has recorded eight CDs under his own name, and is a regular author for the "Harmonica Educator".
Willi Burger, Italy
Willi Burger was born in Milan (Italy), where he studied at the Academy of Fine Art and Architecture at the Polytechnic having studied the classics in Germany. He developed a passion for the chromatic harmonica in classical music and it was here that his intuition for the surprising quality and possibilities of this instrument transformed him into a virtuoso player of interpretation and technique, distinguishing himself from those who limit the harmonica to other parameters and a forerunner, creating a vast classical repertoire for chromatic harmonica. In 1955 he was invited by the "Fédération Internationale de l'Harmonica" to take part in the Winterthur competition, where he was proclaimed winner with unanimous consent, amazing the international jury with his extraordinary virtuosity. John Sebastian, Larry Adler, Tommy Reilly admired his technical talent, his melodic style and his peculiar timbre. After the great success at Winterthur, Burger began an intense concert season with performances all around Europe. Willi Burger usually performs as a guest in an orchestra and, for several years, in duo with the pianist Marcello Parolini. Together they have given numerous concerts and made recordings with record companies like Agorà, Curci and EUCLED.
Tony Eyers, Australia
Tony Eyers was born in Australia and began playing harmonica in the 1970's, inspired by Jim Fitting while studying at Yale University. In the early 1980's, he started playing harmonica in electric blues bands. He formed the Fulll House Blues Band, which became well known in Adelaide, with a weekly residency at the Britannia Hotel. Along with the harmonica, he have a strong interest in baroque recorder. This began in Washington DC the year after graduation, following on from choral group singing at Yale, directed by Chris Zimmerman. He now perform regularly on recorder with Cantate e Strumente, a baroque group he formed in 1995 with Amanda Muir. They are a six piece ensemble, with concerts based around Amanda's singing and the musical direction of our harpsichord player, Nigel Ubrihien. The baroque training has greatly influenced my harmonica style. I am also fortunate to have been taught by Hans-Dieter Michatz, who provided deep insight into baroque styles, and musical performance.
He Jia-Yi
Jia-Yi He is a member of the Chinese Musicians Association, a director of Beijing Harmonica Association, a member of International Harmonica Organization, a honor member of France Harmonica Association, a honor director of Harmonica Art Promotion Association of Taiwan, a consultant for Harmonica Family magazine of Taiwan and Voice of Harmony magazine of Malaysia. He was born in 1953 in Beijing of China and began to learn harmonica from 1964, He was studied harmonica as a real musical instrument with the world famous harmonica virtuoso Cham-Ber Huang at his harmonica master class held in Beijing in 1981. He has often appeared on national TV and Radio every year and is well known in China. He is an outstanding harmonica teacher too, he often taught lesson at workers club, primary school, middle school and university. He presented harmonica lesson on national Television program and it was shown throughout the country and Asia via satellite in 1993.
Jean Labre, France
Jean Labre has been performing as a globe trotter on a permanent orbit for 40 years. Jean is an atypical artist and composer, playing on a wide diversity of instruments: chromatic, diatonic, pentatonic, bass, chord, harmonetta. He has recorded 18 albums. Jean has more than 30 years of experience in managing harmonica associations. He is the founder President of France Harmonica Association and the I.H.O. (International Harmonica Organization) Vice President and world ambassador. Jean is registered at the SACEM (French society of composers, authors and publishers), since 1971, as songwriter and since 1979 as publisher. He has been invited many times as competition judge in I.H.O. and F.I.H. festivals, in Asia Pacific Harmonica Festivals and recently in the "2009 "Trossingen World Harmonica Festival".Jean Labre has always been open to all music styles.
Marcello Parolini, Italy
Marcello Parolini was born in Milan, Italy in 1971. He was awarded his diploma in piano in 1991, with top marks, at the Conservatorio " G.Verdi" in Milan under the guidance of Leonardi, and then went on to perfect his studies with various teachers in Italy and abroad. For ten years, he plays in Duo with the famous harmonica player Willi Burger and has made recordings for Curci, Agora and EUCLED in Duo. He has been a prizewinner in various Italian competitions, including first prizes at Stresa, Modica, Turin, Livorno and Monza, and second prize in the "Benassi" composition competition of Pavia.
Brendan Power, New Zealand
A master of the chromatic harmonica and blues harp, New Zealand-born and London-based Brendan Power has proven equally adept at playing pop, classical, rock, and traditional Irish music. In addition to playing on albums by such Celtic bands as Altan and Arcadia and Irish vocalists, including Paul Brady, Arty McGlynn, Nollaig Casey, and Mary Black, Power has toured Australia with Donal Lunny's Guinness Tour and appeared on albums by Sting, Van Morrison, Shirley Bassey, and classical guitarist John Williams. His debut solo album, New Irish Harmonica, was chosen by Folk Roots as one of the top albums of 1994, while, his 1997 recording, Brendan Power plays the Music From Riverdance, featured his arrangements of tunes from the hit musical revue. While London-based magazine Time Out credited him with having a "magic harmonica," the Irish Times praised him for his "remarkable technical skill, deep knowledge of the instrument and a truly creative approach to the music." Power has consistently sought improved ways of designing the harmonica. His power reed valve system was adapted by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Company of Japan for their high-end ProMaster harmonicas. In a late-90s interview, he explained, "as a player of both chromatic and diatonic harmonics, I'm constantly striving to make an instrument with the best features of both types for my own music. This has given me a lot of experience with such things as altered tunings, combining parts of different brands, half-valving, and general tweaking of the component parts to improve performance." ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide
Michael Timler, Germany
Michael Timler, founder of Harponline/Germany, is well established as a player, customizer, harmonica technician, constructor and instructor, working in close partnership with harmonica manufacturers worldwide. During his more than 40 year long career as a Blues and Rock harmonica player, he had to cope with the fact, that harmonica reeds break due to material fatigue. From those experiences, Michael finally developed the Harponline Service System, an easy to learn method that enables even untrained people to learn how to exchange their broken reeds within some minutes. At the same time, this method expands the skills and deeper understanding about the cooperation of breath and material inside a harmonica. It helps to develop skills in tuning and adjusting the harmonica reeds without effort and the user will automatically develop more sound and expression as a player, saving a lot of money for repairs and new reed plates at the same time.
Hotvill's Trio, France
Hotvill's met when they were kids. Maurice Bailly, Bernard Dubos and Michel Evain went to the Hohner's School and one other school music in Paris. They won different world competition for harmonica and other instruments. The name Hotvill's has been created in 1966, first long playing with the best French orchestra who were a large orchestral support for Frank Sinatra, with "Strangers in the Night" which has been a very big success. For them, it was the beginning for the producers to make plenty others records like Dances-Music, Western-Jazz-Dixie and other varieties. The big chance was to play with the best musicians and they learnt many things from them for work and show production.
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