Harpist plays and tells tales
Eduard Klassen has played in countries all over the world, but keeps coming back to New Zealand’s South Island.
For the fourth time, Klassen, his wife Christine, and his Paraguayan harp will tour the South Island, holding 15 free concerts, including Timaru on Monday and Geraldine on February 21.
It has been three years since the pair were last in New Zealand, and Klassen said he liked to ‘‘do these concerts for the people of New Zealand.’’
Having toured the North Island once, he said the difference was the South Island has ‘‘a lot less people obviously, and more scenery.’’
‘‘South Island has all the mountains – beautiful – and the absolutely incredible beaches.’’
Klassen has performed more than 4500 concerts, some as a freelance artist, and others working for free, for charitable concerts like this tour.
This tour is co-sponsored by the Far East Broadcasting Company and ShineTV, with all donations going towards funding education for the poorer people and countries in Asia, he said.
‘‘We will encourage people to give to these missions. To help people in Asia the same as I was helped when isolated Paraguay],’’ he said.
Klassen will also speak about his experience growing up in a jungle and how he was inspired to connect with the world. [in
‘‘One day some people came from Canada, United States, and Germany, and told us young people to do things with our lives.’’ He studied music, but majored in the piano, with the Paraguayan harp as a hobby, until he changed after a tour around Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland in 1985.
‘‘People really liked the harp, and I couldn’t believe it.
‘‘That’s when it opened my eyes to do this kind of work, travelling with music.’’
Unlike the traditional harp, the Paraguayan harp only has a diatonic scale – the equivalent of only playing the white keys on a piano – and is considered the loudest harp in the world, he said.
Made from cedar and pine, the 37-stringed instrument is played using fingernails rather than fingertips, which produces a ‘‘very lively’’ sound.
The tour includes Christchurch (twice), Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Gore, Invercargill, Lumsden, Cromwell, Geraldine, Ashburton, Darfield, Nelson, and Blenheim.
Along the way the pair were planning to visit Milford Sound, as they had been told it is ‘‘the icing of the cake in New Zealand, if you haven’t seen it yet.’’
‘‘I always thought Canada was one of the greatest [countries], but when I came to New Zealand, I thought ‘‘oh my goodness, it’s all beautiful’’,’’ he said.
The Timaru and Geraldine concerts start at 7pm in the St John’s Anglican Church and St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church respectively.