2025 Montana Harp Retreat
September 19-21, 2025
Best Western Plus Grant Creek Inn
Missoula, MT
BSHS is hosting our Harp Retreat 2025 in Missoula, MT at the Grant Creek Inn. The presenter this year is Hannah Flowers
We hope you can all come and join our Harp Community!
Location:
Grant Creek Inn, Missoula, Montana.
We have booked a courtesy room block at the hotel. Individuals can make their reservations at the discounted rate of $189.00/day plus tax until the cut-off date of August 29, 2025. Individuals may make their reservations by calling the hotel directly or using the online link below.
Please reference that you are with the Big Sky Harp Society.
Phone number: 406-543-0700
5280 Grant Creek Road (Just off the Reserve St exit)
Missoula, MT 59808
Featured Presenter: Hannah Flowers
Biography:
As a performer, singer and educator, Minnesota-based harpist and singer Hannah Flowers seeks to imbue her music-making and teaching with effortless grace and fluidity. Known for her sensitive and lyrical accompaniment of songs as well as her syncopated and rhythmic accompaniment of dance tunes, Hannah enjoys exploring the full depth of traditional Irish music and song.
Inspired to learn the harp as a child, she regained her enthusiasm for the instrument after watching performances of Celtic Woman on public television as a young teenager. This musical gateway led to a life-altering immersion in Irish Traditional music and song which has taken her to Ireland over a dozen times. Over the past decade, she has traveled to Ireland to compete in the Fleadh Cheoil na Eireann and received a Minnesota Arts Board Grant to study wire-strung harp at Scoil na gClairseach in Kilkenny, Ireland. She received her first grant from the Fulbright Commission in 2017 to study the Irish Language at Oideas Gael in the Gaeltacht in Donegal for three summers, and in 2020 was awarded a Fulbright research aware to Ireland in order to pursue a Master's Degree in Irish Traditional Music Performance from Maynooth University.
In late 2018 she released her debut album "Amhran na Cruite" which feature twelve songs in the Irish language with harp accompaniment and her second solo harp album "Hall-Gate House" was released in September 2022. The album features sets of traditional Irish tunes as well as songs in English and Irish accompanied by guitarist Daithi Sproule.
Hannah is an active performer and visiting teaching artist at festivals and events around the country, including the Somerset Folk Harp Festival, The Harp Gathering in Ohio, and Musicmakers' Harp Twangle. Hannah teaches harp and singing privately and at the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul, MN, a non-profit community music school dedicated to handing down the tradition.
She holds a B.A. in music and a first-class Honours M.A. in Irish Traditional Music Performance from Maynooth University in Ireland.
2025 Retreat Schedule
5:00 – 6:30 pm Dinner on your own
6:30 – 6:40 pm Welcome and announcements
6:45 – 7:45 pm Workshop #1 Harp Accompaniment
9:30 – 10:30 am Workshop #2 Celtic Hymns Old and New
10:45 – 11:45 am Workshop #3 Harpin’ it Irish: Irish Ornamentation & Style
12:00 – 1:00 pm Lunch at the hotel (provided)
1:15 – 2:15 pm Workshop #4 Beyond the Jigs & Reels: Contemporary Irish Tunes
2:30 – 3:30 pm Ensembles
3:45 – 5:00 pm Harp Circle
5:30 – 6:30 pm Dinner at the hotel (provided)
Online Registration Form
To register online, complete the form below and click "submit". To mail your registration form with a check, download the PDF above. You may use the PayPal button below to pay your registration fee, or mail a check to the address provided on the PDF registration form above.
Cancellations must be received by September 5th, 2025 to receive a refund.