LAKE WYLIE --
Nobody’s promising a midnight clear or angels bending near to earth, but those glorious songs of old will be playing.
Touching their harps of gold will be more than 20 players with the Charlotte Chapter of American Harp Society. They’ll perform A Multitude of Harps at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, at Scherer Memorial Presbyterian Church, 4800 Charlotte Hwy. The event is free and open to the community. Christmas favorites will fill the program.
Harpists range in age and experience. One will be Bette Roth, a Scherer member and Lake Wylie resident who retired last year from Charlotte Symphony Orchestra after 40 years with the group.
Roth’s daughter, Carla Mitchell, is an accomplished player who teaches music at Crowders Creek Elementary School where her two children – also players of the harp and violin – are students.
“The neat thing about this performance is there will be three generations playing,” Roth said.
Christine Van Arsdale, past president of the Charlotte Chapter, said there are 85 members in her group, including harp professionals, teachers, students and “friends of the harp.” The Lake Wylie show will be one of many for members, set right in the middle of prime-time harp season.
“Christmas is a huge time of year for harp players of all shapes and sizes,” Van Arsdale said. “Christmas and harps just go together.”
Sunday’s performance won’t be the first in Lake Wylie featuring Roth and her family. For a decade, Roth and Mitchell have been bringing harp students to perform for residents at Lake Wylie Retirement & Assisted Living. Last week, a handful of students played to a packed house, with standing room only.
“It’s always such a special time for the residents and the kids,” Roth said.
For more information about Sunday’s event, call the church at 803-831-7133.
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