The Harp Player : Natalia Mann
Born in New Zealand, Natalia has an impressive musical history, one that keeps changing and adapting. She studied harp playing in her native country, and became one of the top harp players there, including playing for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Her album Pasif.ist was a bestseller in New Zealand in 2011, which you can listen to (and buy) on Bandcamp. Musical improvisation and experimentation started to fascinate her, and so her thirst for musical exploration took her to Melbourne. As it does. Collaborating with other musicians here, she experimented with a great swathe of genres that you wouldn’t normally associate with a harp — folk, roots, hip hop, lounge and experimental. Since part of her heritage is Samoan, she founded the trio Sunga, and also the Brown Roots Pacific Arts Collective. Life has taken her to Istanbul, Macedonia, Cairns, and, of course, the Evelyn, where I come into her story. I met her around the days of Cape Live, a venue which used to be just up from the Evelyn, and we quickly became good friends. Since then, she’s played live music at many of my exhibition openings, and we catch up whenever her busy schedule brings her to Fitzroy.
