Album Notes

Sharlene is a musician with a strong Canadian identity which is reflected in many of her compositions. With the Celtic harp she brings together many influences from the Canadian landscape to Celtic music to contemporary sounds to South American harp playing. It is impossible to say her music is Celtic or Latin or Classical. It is simply "shar music"!

Island Mountain features her composition Island Mountain Suite as well as a bonus track of Alfredo Rolando Ortiz's Merengue Rojo.

Sharlene Wallace is one of Canada's most prolific and influential Celtic (lever) harpists. Playing both Classical (pedal) and lever harps has led Sharlene to copiously diverse musical influences and opportunities.

Winner of two international competitions, the Lyon & Healy International Pop & Jazz Lever Harp Competition (Tucson, Arizona) and the Concours d'Improvisation de Rencontres Internationales de Harpe Celtique (Dinan, France), Sharlene has created five independent CDs which frequently grace radio airwaves (the rhyme & the river, Journey of Shadows, Beyond the Waves, Island Mountain and Anticipation, a collaborated CD with flutist/pianist Susan Piltch). These albums feature many of Sharlene’s compositions inspired by her explorations in South American, Celtic, Classical and contemporary music and by her close connection with the Canadian landscape. Her music is deeply evocative, rhythmic, lyrical, spacious, complex, subtle, compelling.

Sharlene tours internationally giving concerts, workshops, masterclasses and adjudications. She has performed in numerous festivals and concert series across North America and in Europe in large concert halls and intimate settings as a solo performer, in ensembles and guesting with symphony orchestras. She has collaborated with classical, avant garde, traditional, world, jazz and blues musicians such as George Koller, Sal Ferreras, Adrian Dolan, Susan Piltch, Joseph Macerollo, Loretto Reid, Kim Robertson, vivie 'vinçent, Ben Grossman, Kirk Elliott, Doug Cox and Lucile Brais-Hildesheim.

Sharlene is on the faculties of both York and Guelph Universities teaching Classical and lever harps. Her own performance degree is from the University of Toronto where she studied with the eminent Judy Loman. Sharlene is Principal Harpist with the Oakville and Kingston Symphonies.