Re: [Harp-L] harpist with orchestra

[martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Larry wrote:
>what is it about the Scandanavian/Holland area that breeds such great quality? - >musicians who've eliminated the ego to get closer to the musical essence, orchestras >that underplay and support, and HD quality youtube videos.Since delving into the Within >Temptation, I am finding more reason to want to move over there.... 
From: icemanle@xxxxxxx

Speaking from one (1) part of Scandinavia, Sweden, I think it´s fairly easy to answer: it´s the welfare society. That is, the welfare society has generated a schooling system with lots of opportunities for musical education, from early on. 
  It is most certainly no accident that Sweden, a small somewhat complacent society at the end of the world, suddenly started to generate a whole lot of successful pop/rock etc musicians, in the 1980´s and after, in the wake of Abba.
  I take no personal pride in this, and will reveal no ideological commitments to the project (but rest assured that it comes with a price tag), just stating it. 
 We had a similar thing going on in tennis a couple of decades ago, after a certain Björn Borg made his mark internationally. All of a sudden Swedes started to play tennis and schools took this up in a big way. A disproprationate amount of Swedes soon scored greatly on the courts.
 
  Low harp content, sorry. Toots T lived here a while, but nothing much came of that with regard to harmonica ...
 
  /Martin