Heartstrings are superb musicians
who will bring high class cultural enjoyment
to your festival, corporate function or personal celebration.
ARTICLES
'HEARTSTRINGS UP WITH THE PLAY'
by Tony Waring
Natarani and Sasha Witten-Hannah are professional musicians who enjoy spreading the joy of music as widely as they can. They do this through a busy schedule of teaching and performing, and never cease to be amazed by the way all cultures can communicate through the international language of music.
WEDDINGS
“We play at around 50 weddings a year,” says Sasha, a classical guitarist, “and are engaged for a wide range of people of ethnic and religious communities. We try to customise our performance for each occasion, and select the repertoire to suit the occasion. We have played all Yiddish music at a Jewish wedding, but then had to come up with a completely different repertoire for a Palestinian birthday party. And an Ethiopian Orthodox wedding was quite a challenge!”
Weddings and other functions are a big part of the income of ‘Heartstrings’, the name which Sasha and Natarani perform under. In the summer months they might perform at two or three weddings a week, and keep the business ticking over through exchanging business cards with the caterers and photographers they meet at each occasion, a billboard on Titirangi Road, and through advertising in the Bride and Groom magazine and a website, www.heartsrings.co.nz
“We invite couples round to our home in Titirangi to discuss the repertoire we should play at their wedding,” says Natarani. “We offer suggestions from works we have already played, and if they have a favourite song we can arrange it to suit the guitar and cello. We normally start off with some classical favourites leading up to the ceremony, then special requests for the bride's entrance and the signing of the register, and then we move into more up-tempo, celebratory, pieces for after the ceremony.”
HOUSE CONCERTS
The couple also perform house concerts, and can select from their broad areas of musical interest, that include classical, jazz, folk, Irish, Latin American and Spanish music. Amongst their house concert clients is Peter Hillary, who hired the couple for his daughter’s christening and annual Christmas carol evenings.
TUITION FOR CHILDREN
They both offer lessons in Milford, Auckland, on Wednesdays and Sasha teaches from the Michael Park Steiner school in Ellerslie, Auckland, on Fridays.
Teaching from their home in Highland Avenue has required Sasha and Natarani to organise the rooms to suit not only their pupils, who pay $20 for a half hour lesson, but also accompanying parents and siblings. The parents are closely involved in Suzuki teaching, and accompany the children to their lessons, and ensure the children listen to the recording that goes with their lesson every day. Natarani teaches in the wooden-floored lounge, while Sasha has a studio downstairs overlooking the garden in which to teach guitar and recorder. What would normally be a spare bedroom has become the playroom for brothers and sisters of pupils, and the basement is the office.
PERFORMANCES & BACKGROUND
Brought up in West Auckland, the pair have a strong affinity with the area, and were proud to be appointed Waitakere City Musical Ambassadors in 2001 by Mayor Bob Harvey. Since then they have been engaged by the Waitakere City Council for functions, events and library openings.
Natarani plays in the Waitakere City Orchestra (next performance 9 April at Glen Eden Playhouse), and Heartstrings gave their most recent of many performances in the area in the Lopdell House Concert Series on 27 March 2005. The pair were very well-received at their performance with the Auckland Philharmonia on 13 March at the new Villa Maria vineyard in 2005.
Sasha and Natarani also have a strong sense of heritage, and carrying on a musical tradition that has been handed down to them. “My most influential teacher was Emile Bibobie, who lived in Huia for many years,” says Sasha. “He was from Belgium, but was taught in England by the father of the famous guitarist John Williams. Emile’s portrait hangs in my studio. He died peacefully in 1994, and I sat with him for three hours just before he passed away, and played him every song he had taught me.”
Natarani was hugely inspired by the Russian cello school of Alexander Ivashkin, an outstanding international cellist and exponent aof Russian music.
Sasha graduated from University of Auckland, and Natarani got her Masters degree at Canterbury University, studying under acclaimed cellist, Alexander Ivashkin. Both then traveled and studied overseas, before meeting up in Titirangi, and marrying in 2002 on the beach at Huia.
“We are very fortunate to be able to make a living from music. Music is our life. Not the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll version, though. For us its love, healthy living, caring for the environment, and spreading the gift of music. We often bring all of these together when we play to help causes such as the anti-GE and peace movements,” says Sasha.