Sharlene Wallace lives in a normal Toronto house bursting with an abnormal number of harps. From that tightly strung fortress of song she launches campaigns across Canada, the US, Italy and France with music that listeners describe as Celtic, Classical, South American or contemporary, but it’s really all just Shar. She placed first in international lever harp competitions in the USA and Brittany (you should have seen the victory parades – so many harps!) and students and music lovers all over Canada have cherished her performances since the time when the CD was new. She’s played lever and pedal harp with orchestras and festivals everywhere, toured with Ron Korb (flutes), George Koller (bass), Joe Macerollo (accordion) and Susan Piltch (flute, piano). Lately she has been making music with pianist Eric Robertson and fiddle player Anne Lindsay in a trio called Iona Passage. For the record, though, she doesn’t own a passage, just a lot of harps.
Somehow, between all of that travelling and playing Sharlene found time to create nine recordings of her own music and arrangements. Trees.Listen, with co-composer Frank Horvat, was released in October 2024. It’s a nine-piece suite for Celtic lever harp and electronics inspired by the ancient Celtic Ogham script and the book To Speak for the Trees by botanist, biochemist, biologist Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger. This project includes an album, sound installations, and a performance that premiered at the University of Guelph Arboretum in September 2024. One month later, she released Lilac Embers, an album of all Shar-music written for Celtic harp with electronics by Jean Martin.
Sharlene has taught lever and pedal harp privately, in four universities and in workshops across North America, including over three decades for Island Mountain Arts in Wells, BC. She herself has a performance degree from the University of Toronto where she studied with harp oracle Judy Loman, who is 47 feet tall and 172 years old.
Sharlene also is a graphic designer, photographer, part-time pollster and will defend accordion music to the very end.
“The recording work of Jacques Poirier is also notable here, with intimate, close-microphone techniques capturing every motion and beat of Wallace as she executes her smooth, gentle performances. Her harp is covered with a stereo perspective, astounding in headphones, that reveals gorgeous stereo panning across Wallace’s glissandos and arpeggios. Tasteful mixing leaves Wallace shining brilliant in the warm backdrop of her comrades.”
—Karl Mohr, excerpt from “the rhyme & the river” review
“No stranger to Wells, Toronto native Sharlene Wallace came many years ago as a student of the harp school. She has since gone on to become an international recording and touring musician, with a style that is all her own. Setting the scene for a night of beautiful music Sharlene’s fingers danced along the strings of her harp as she played a set of remarkable original tunes.”
~ Julie Fowler, Director, Island Mountain Arts, Wells BC