Golden Harp

The Golden Harp (Dutch: Gouden Harp) is awarded annually to Dutch musicians for their entire oeuvre. Golden Harps have been awarded 42 times. 149 different persons or (musical) groups have had the honour of receiving the award which is considered to be one of the most important prizes in Dutch music.

Background

The awards were first presented in 1962

The prize is intended for a musician's entire oeuvre. The website of Buma Cultuur states the following: "Considered for this award are persons who have made themselves particularly meritorious for Dutch light music throughout their careers."

Apart from 1963 and 1964 award ceremonies were held every year since the first presentation in 1962. The winners are selected by a different jury each year, usually in February. Buma Cultuur also presents the Zilveren Harp award, which is given to promising Dutch musical talent and the Buma Export Award for acts which are successful abroad.

List of winners

Notes

See also

Harp

The harp is a stringed musical instrument which has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard, which are plucked with the fingers. Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa, and Europe, dating back at least as early as 3500 BCE. The instrument had great popularity in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, where it evolved into a wide variety of variants with new technologies, and was disseminated to Europe's colonies, finding particular popularity in Latin America. While some ancient members of the harp family died out in the Near East and South Asia, descendants of early harps are still played in Burma and in Sub-Saharan Africa, while other defunct variants in Europe and Asia have been revived by musicians in the modern era.

Harps vary globally in many ways. In terms of size, many smaller harps can be played on the lap, while larger harps are quite heavy and rest on the floor. Different harps may use strings of catgut or nylon, or of metal, or some combination. While all harps have a neck, resonator, and strings, "frame harps" have a pillar at their long end to support the strings, while "open harps", such as arch or bow harps, do not. Modern harps also vary in techniques used to extend the range and chromaticity of the strings, such as adjusting a string's note mid-performance with levers or pedals which modify the pitch.

Steam Powered Giraffe

Steam Powered Giraffe (SPG) is a musical project formed in San Diego in 2008 that is popular in the steampunk subculture. Led by twins David Michael Bennett and Isabella "Bunny" Bennett, and long-time friend Samuel Luke, the act combines mime, sketches, pop culture references, improvised comedic dialogue, and original music of various genres.

Career

The members of Steam Powered Giraffe met while taking Theatre Arts at Grossmont College. Afterwards, they became members of a local San Diego mime group called Troupe SD. Trained in pantomime by Seaport Village mime Jerry "Kazoo" Hager, and with collective backgrounds in clown, theater, music, and visual design, Jonathan Sprague, Erin Burke (a fellow mime artist) and the Bennett twins - Bunny and David - started street busking as quirky robotic characters (at the time known as Peoplebots) in January 2008 at Balboa Park, California. Due to personal reasons, Erin Burke left the group in 2011.

Since their conception, the band has performed at popular Southern California venues including The San Diego County Fair, The San Diego Zoo, The Wild Animal Park, Legoland California, Ontario Mills, The Queen Bee's Art & Cultural Center, and at numerous Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Steampunk Conventions.

Steam (software)

Steam is an Internet-based digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation offering digital rights management (DRM), multiplayer, and social networking. Steam provides the user with installation and automatic updating of games on multiple computers, and community features such as friends lists and groups, cloud saving, and in-game voice and chat functionality. The software provides a freely available application programming interface (API) called Steamworks, which developers can use to integrate many of Steam's functions into their products, including networking, matchmaking, in-game achievements, micro-transactions, and support for user-created content through Steam Workshop.

Though initially developed for use on Microsoft Windows, versions for OS X and Linux operating systems were later released. Applications whose main functions are chatting and shopping have also been released for iOS and Android mobile devices. The Steam website also replicates much of the storefront and social network features of the stand-alone application.

Tim Eriksen

Tim Eriksen is an American musician, musicologist, and professor. He is the leader of the band Cordelia's Dad, a solo artist, and was a performer and consultant for the award-winning soundtrack of the film Cold Mountain.

Cordelia's Dad

Cordelia's Dad combines old-time music and punk rock influences to create a unique sound. The Village Voice describes the band as "semi-reformed punks turned shape-note singers...recently gone entirely acoustic, but buzzing with metaphorical electricity". The band has released nine full length albums, played festivals such as The Newport Folk Festival, and toured with notable bands Nirvana, Uncle Tupelo, and Weezer.

Musicologist

Eriksen successfully defended his PhD in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in May 2015, having received an M.A. in the same discipline from Wesleyan in 1993, and has served as a visiting music professor at Dartmouth College, Amherst College, Hampshire College and the University of Minnesota. He has also taught in Poland and The Czech Republic. Additionally, Eriksen is a collector of variations of folk songs, and has conducted extensive research on traditional Yugoslavian music. Eriksen shared his extensive knowledge of folk music while a consultant for the soundtrack of the film Cold Mountain. In 2011, Eriksen taught a class on the history of The Sacred Harp at Smith College.