High 'Water' mark
The Butler County Symphony Orchestra opens its 62nd season with a concert on Oct. 9. The "Water" theme for this performance speaks to both the guest artist and the musical selections.
The featured performer will be Jamey Turner, one of only a handful of glass harpist in the world. Using as many as 60 brandy snifters of all sizes, he creates sounds by running his moistened fingers across the rims of water-filled glasses.
This will be his third performance with the Butler orchestra.
He has been featured on the "Today Show," "Live From Lincoln Center" and has appeared at Disney World, Busch Gardens, the Kennedy Center and numerous other venues.
Among many familiar tunes, Turner's repertoire will include an original piece, "Water Suite," written for the glass harp by his composer sister Patricia Holmberg, who will play the piano while Turner performs the suite.
The orchestra will open the concert with "Savannah River Holiday Festival" by Ron Nelson. The piece consists of two contrasting moods alternating throughout the work evoking the power and serenity of the Savannah River.
Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" will be highlighted by photographer Phil Norton's portraits of the sea.
The orchestra will also play "The Moldau" by Smetana, eliciting the sounds of one of the rivers of Bohemia.
Turner, born and raised in Montana, remembers his father, a doctor and also a singer in a barbershop quartet, gathering a group for dinner and some of them having acoustic fun with the glassware. On an evening with just the family, they had fun playing on glasses.
"I remember it so clearly — everyone going around the table striking their glasses for a different note, one by one," he says. "Some people remember exactly where they were during historic moments — I remember this day when I was 6 like it was yesterday."
Still, he couldn't have recognized the appeal his talent would have.
"I never saw myself making a career out of this — I had studied the humanities at the University of Colorado and practiced photography," he said.
"It wasn't until I joined the Army in 1959 and traveled across Europe when I really fell in love with performing the glass harp."
Indeed, in the Army he had the opportunity to play for crowds, which he loved. When he came home, he wrote to places where he could perform — including "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." In 1969 he found himself in Burbank, Calif., playing water-filled glasses in front of millions of viewers.
It was unusual enough for Carson to bring the glass harpist back three more times throughout the years.
From there, it was the White House Easter Egg roll, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Library of Congress, among others.
Turner does several hundred performances a year.
Because so many people have been putting videos on "YouTube" of Turner playing the glass harp, he has been getting requests from around the world to perform. He was in Japan for a television variety show in January, and in Lebanon in June.
Turner lives in Mount Vernon, Va., with his wife, Mary.
<B>WHO: </B>Butler County Symphony Orchestra<B>WHAT: </B>Opens 62nd season with a concert themed "Water"<B><B>WHEN: </B>7:30 p.m. Oct. 9<B>WHERE: </B>Butler Intermediate High School auditorium, 151 Fairground Hill Road.<B>TICKETS: </B>Adult ticket prices are $15 in advance and $18 at the door the evening of the show. Student tickets are $5. Tickets are available at the symphony office, 259 S. Main St.<B>INFO: </B>Call 724-283-1402 or visit the website www.butlersymphony.org.
