A Chat with Sharon Thormahlen: Harps, Composition, Teaching, and Inspiration

Sharon Thormahlen with her Ceili harp with the mountains in the distance

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Multitalented and generous come to mind when I think of Sharon Thormahlen. Sharon is a sought after multi-instrumentalist, composer, teacher, arranger, and is part of the duo that heads up Thormahlen Harps. Many folks in the harp world may recognize the Thormahlen name for their outstanding line of harps, ukuleles, guitars and more made in the pacific northwest of the United States. Maeve Gilchrist, Rhett Barnwell and Sarah Deere-Jones are just a few of the amazing artists who love their Thormahlen harps.

I met Sharon and Dave Thormahlen at The Somerset Folk Harp Festival. As in 2020, the festival also took place online again this year this. This year Kathy DeAngelo, the festival’s director, created an online experience that allowed festival goers to meet up with friends online. There was also a “virtual vendor hall” that allowed the vendors to chat with festival goers and take us around their workshops. Here’s a video from The Thormahlen vendor booth where Dave and Sharon discuss their harps and Sharon’s sheet music that are for sale on their website:

Sharon started out playing folk music on the guitar. Later when her band needed a bass player she took up the upright bass that she played in the band, The Swing Beans, with her husband Dave.

Sharon and I discuss how the harp came into her life and how she has used it in music therapy. Sharon also gets to be the first person to play every newly built Thormahlen harp. She strings every harp that Dave makes, helping the newly built harps find their voices.

Sharon’s compositions for the harp are available on the Thormahlen website. In the interview you can hear Sharon’s performance of her composition, “Alpenglow” from her songbook, “Moon Over the Mountain”.

Sharon’s newest book, Melodías del Arpa, which are arrangements of Latin American Music for Lever Harp, is a collaboration with Paraguayan harpist, Nicolas Carter.

Sharon and I also spoke about how she and Dave and a Canadian harp maker are helping luthiers of the "Guayabo" sociocultural project construct harps in Cuba.

I hope this interview inspires you to create, play, and explore.