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Born in Asheville, NC in the spring of 2007, Holly Celtic Lever Harp was commissioned to be hand-made for Silver, Wood & Ivory of Lititz, PA.  After travelling courageously and faithfully in her hunter green, handmade, zippered, padded case with Silver, Wood & Ivory to venues across thousands of miles, she succumbed suddenly one November day in 2016 to a horrendous harp attack. (gruesome picture above.)

 

Terminal disorders which eventually brought on her demise were several: enduring a consistent 900 pounds of tremendous structural tension, living strung out day and night with expectations of perfection, and being nitpickingly fine-tuned by a metal wrench incessantly everywhere she went. At great monetary cost, her DNA had been designed to withstand these stress factors, and Holly, ever so valiantly, offered only grace, beauty, calm, and joy to every SWI fan she met. Never failing to hide the enormous pressures she was under, she remained true to her original life’s purpose, that of bringing divine music to mortal earthlings.

 

When sitting on a stage, all who merely gazed upon Holly were overcome by her impressive, various, ornate wooden grains, curvaceous figure, and adornment of hand painted flowers and vines. Many would walk up close to admire her presence with awe and respect.  A portion of her structural lineage was from that of 2000 year-old Kauri trees from New Zealand, buried underground for 45,000 years then extracted for woodworking purposes of infinite uses. This and several amazing stories of her life had been told far and wide, but will now sadly be buried with her forever.

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Holly’s sound was celestial, like that of an angel when performed upon correctly.  Her sonorous, deep, and brilliant reverberant tones have been forever embedded and recorded into several compositions by Silver, Wood & Ivory, such as Mourning Dove, Fawn Awakening, and Celtic Air on their Adagio in the Forest CD, and This is my Father’s World on Adagio Meditations by the Sea CD. 

 

It was said that her music, euphonious and rich with multitudes of vibrations, could miraculously, however temporarily, release many a human soul from mental tensions, anxieties, and serious problems. Through these recordings, her music will continue to do so, to infinity and beyond.

 

Holly will be sorely missed and can never be fully replaced.  After all the adventures and close calls Silver, Wood & Ivory dragged her through (like being caught and falling onto the stage when a curtain was raised,) and being forever harped upon to stay in tune with expectations of supernatural levels of perfection, Cindy and Tracy will always remember with gratitude and appreciation many long strings of hilarious moments created so nobly and willingly with Holly in her short life on earth. 

 

RIP Holly.