Harry Vayo
When I was a student in Wisconsin in the early 80s, I went to a contradance with a girl named Jenny. The band included someone playing an oddly shaped wooden box with a multitude of strings. When the player struck the strings with small mallets, it sounded like sunlight shimmering on a mountain lake, raindrops pattering on autumn leaves, and cold stream water tumbling over stones, sometimes all at the same time. It was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.
Instead of falling in love with Jenny, I fell in love with the hammered dulcimer.
During my more than twenty years of hammering, I have developed a distinctive playing style, with a particular emphasis on harmony, which I apply to a wide variety of music. Celtic tunes are a favorite, from wistful airs to lively jigs and rambunctious reels; but Beatle’s songs, Chinese and Japanese melodies, a Cajun footstomper, and an occasional classical piece are likely to show up in my performances. My development as a musician has been strongly influenced by dulcimer masters John McCutcheon, Malcolm Dalglish, and Dan Duggan; important non-dulcimer musical influences include the Beatles (especially George Harrison), Cat Stevens (whose songs are like tiny jewels that open up to the whole universe), organist Garth Hudson of The Band, and the Chieftains.
I perform at coffeehouses, church services, benefit concerts, festivals, receptions, and like McNamara’s Band “at wakes and weddings and at every fancy ball.” Special venues have included Maine's Common Ground Country Fair and New Years by the Bay in Belfast, Maine. I have taught beginning dulcimer at the Bay Path Dulcimer Festival (Princeton, MA) and to private students. My playing has been featured on recordings by Maine musicians Jim Whitman and Floyd White.
My first CD, Hobbitland (2002), contains several original compositions, tunes by the Beatles and Bob Dylan, and traditional music from Ireland, Quebec, and India. My second offering, Ashes on the Stream (2007), includes more original material as well as Chinese, Japanese, Scottish, and Irish tunes.
In 2007, after graduating from the Music for Healing and Transition Program (MHTP), I became a Certified Music Practitioner (CMP). I am trained to provide live healing music at the bedside of the sick or dying. A CMP does not cure or treat disease but creates a relaxing therapeutic atmosphere in which the patient’s body-mind is better able to heal itself. As a CMP, I provide a service, not entertainment. For more information about healing music, please visit the MHTP website (click on Links), my page on the Natural Energy Therapy of Maine site (also in Links), or contact me at this site.