Group Harmonica Episodes

Winslow Yerxa joins me on episode 126. Winslow is originally from Canada, now living in San Francisco. He started out playing blues harmonica before becoming interested in the traditional music of French Canada and British origins, among others. Winslow plays in harmonica ensembles and produces his own compositions using a wide variety of harmonicas, including the diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, the Pentaharp, XB40 and the recent Gamechanger harmonica. Winslow created the Harmonica Information ...

Harmonica group Svang join me on episode 112. Svang are a harmonica quartet from Finland, who have been performing and recording for over twenty years now. They first formed in 2003 when Jouko was teaching at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and suggested forming a harmonica group with two of his students. The group doesn’t play the typical harmonicas of a harmonica group, with a harmonetta used instead of a chord, and bluesy diatonics used as part of the sound alongside chromatic. Their repe...

Rocky Lok joins me on episode 79. Rocky lives in Hong Kong, where there is a vibrant harmonica scene. Harmonica is taught in many schools there, which is how Rocky got started playing himself almost 50 years ago. He went on to become part of the King's Harmonica Quintet which has played many prestigious concerts, including in front of an audience of twenty thousand, as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch procession and winning the group competition at the World Harmonica Championship in T...

Gerhard Mueller joins me on episode 59. Gerhard is the Product Manager for Hohner harmonicas, a role he has held for 28 years. His father worked as a gardener at the Hohner factory in Trossingen, and as well as getting his son harmonica lessons, he even had a hand in helping Gerhard land his dream job at Hohner. Gerhard talks us through the fascinating history of Hohner and how it was established as the leading harmonica brand in the world having sold over 1 billion harmonicas since the compa...

Cy Leo joins me on episode 48. Leo is from Hong Kong, where he started learning to play classical chromatic harmonica from age 6, under the direction of his father, who is an accomplished player himself, having won the ensemble category at the 1997 World Harmonica Championship with his quintet, helping to raise interest in the harmonica throughout Asia. Leo quickly gained recognition in his own right, winning the World Championship youth category at age 15 before taking the adult crown at age...

Tony Eyers joins me on episode 45. Tony is an Australian who first picked up the harmonica while studying at Yale in the US. Returning from America he started a successful blues band in Adelaide. He also plays baroque recorder, and has been part of an ensemble for 25 years, which has helped shape his sound on harmonica. In the mid-90s he became interested in playing fiddle music and developed the Major Cross tuning for the diatonic, now available through Seydel. Tony has several successful harmo...

Fata Morgana are a Dutch harmonica quartet, who first formed in 1980 after meeting at the Eindhoven Harmonica Club. Two of the original members survive from that time, with the current line-up existing since 2001. The group have played at many festivals around the world, including in Asia where harmonica groups are still very popular. They have released six albums, with their latest one in 2017 including four guest harmonica players from across Europe. They share how they put together their own ...