Dimitri Boekhoorn – Harp Seminar

Dimitri Boekhoorn, musician and former teacher at the university of Rennes II, comes from the Netherlands and is now living in Brittany. He has two passions: Celtic Studies and music. He has taught Celtic Civilization and Breton language classes at Rennes II, while working on an international thesis on mediaeval celtic literature at the university of Rennes and UCC (University College Cork, Ireland).

As for his second passion, he plays traditional Celtic and early music as well as his own compositions on several harps, flutes and whistles. Dimitri is principally self-taught, using the method of plucking the wire-strung harps with his nails like the mediaeval gaelic harpers, rather than pulling them with the fingertips. He has thus evolved a unique playing-technique, creating a rapid, ornamented style, which allows for rythmic precision while playing dance music. He plays numerous modern and early harps strung with carbon, gut, bronze, brass, steel and even gold.  Invited to give concerts and conduct workshops at international harp festivals, Dimitri has also played and recorded with renowned musicians, for example Carlos Nunez and he performs also as a soloist with up to twelve different harps. Influenced by Celtic, South-American, African and Oriental music, Dimitri has performed in a dozen European countries, participating in harp, folk, traditional and early music festivals (Dinan, Edinburgh, Porto and Vevey), harp festivals, Folkwoods folk festival, Largentière Medieval music festival…).