Show Reviews

Wittchen Initiative captivating with harp, tuba, vocals
by Dave Howell | The Morning Call
February 28, 2011

A singer, two concert harps, and a tuba. The Wittchen Initiative is a strange musical combination, but it turned out to be a captivating one in a nearly two-hour show Sunday afternoon. With the upper half of the theater blocked off, there was an almost full audience in the lower part of Baker Hall at Lehigh University's Zoellner Arts Center.
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General Press

Wittchen Initiative takes harp to new places
by Dave Howell | The Morning Call
February 25, 2011

With a singer, two concert harpists, and a tuba player, the Wittchen Initiative is an unusual combination. But it works beautifully, as you would hear Feb. 27 at a CD release concert at Zoellner Arts Center celebrating the group's second EP, "Unrequitable."

The Wittchens are Andrea Wittchen and daughter Samantha on harp, Alexandra on vocals and Dan Nosheny on brass, tuba, trombone, accordion, percussion and piano. This group takes harp music where it doesn't generally go. It covers artists such as Radiohead, Johnny Cash, the Beach Boys, Carly Simon, John Mayer and Vanilla Ice, and performs Broadway tunes and standards from the 1930s and 1940s.

Classical music is not on the group's set list, even though Andrea and Samantha have performed it for many years. "We are really trying to get across that harp should not be put into a musical ghetto," says Andrea, who lives in Saucon Valley. "It is a very versatile instrument, capable of playing many genres of music."
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