BIO
Since 1994, Aryeh has been delighting audiences around the globe with his passionate, enduring and evocative music. His uncommon approach to the Celtic harp and folk harp repertoire, his multi-instrumentalist abilities and his numerous critically and commercially successful albums have earned him credit as a musician, recording and performance artist of extraordinary talents and abilities:
"Aryeh Frankfurter is amazing"- San Francisco Chronicle
"Though not a household name, Aryeh is every bit as relevant as others with higher profiles." - Essex Folk News
Some of the finest Celtic harp I’ve ever heard. - Alternate Music Press
Deeply emotive ... masterfully played. - Body, Mind, Spirit
I run out of superlatives ... refreshing subtle and melodic. - The Folk Mag
... uncommonly lovely and haunting. - Internatonal Folk Harp Journal
A gem among the San Francisco musician scene - Harpbeat of the Bay Folk Harp Society Journal
Without doubt [some] of the finest Celtic harp I’ve ever heard. - Alternate Music Press
Easily the finest harp album of O'Carolan - Classical Guitar Magazine
Aryeh Frankfurter currently pursues a career as a full time free lance musician, performance and recording artist based in San Francisco/Bay Area region of California. His notable performances include anywhere from playing in an intimate setting for Prince Charles and Lady Camilla Bowles Parker to extremely large audiences of 3400 in the outdoor ampitheatre Dalhalla in Rattvik, Sweden, to Sweden's oldest and largest music festival, Musik Vid Siljan, to Harpcons 2000, 2005 and Festival of Harps 2003, 2005 and 2006. His music has been featured on the internationally syndicated music program Echoes (PRI) as well as countless other radio stations throughout the world.
Aryeh specializes in peforming in public settings and has been a featured performer and draw at countless festivals and fairs throughout California.
The Long Blurb
Aryeh's musical endeavors began at the age of three when he undertook classical training on the violin. His progress enabled him to study under various master violinists, including concert master of the Chicago Symphony, Harold Ayres. By the age of twelve Aryeh was already being accepted into various university level orchestras, including a Northridge College music program and accredited courses in the University of Southern California summer institutes held in Idyllwild, California. He participated both as a violinist and violist in a series of chamber music ensembles under the tutelage of internationally renown cellist, Bonnie Hampton, pianist Nathan Schwartz, teachers at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the late violinist Ann Crowden of the Crowden School of music in Berkeley, CA.
From an early age Aryeh's musical development led him to explore various ethnic and international musical genres, particularly Celtic folk music. At the age of fifteen Aryeh was introduced to the Celtic harp, an instrument which has become the focal point of his musical inspiration and expression. Over the interceding years Aryeh taught himself to play a variety of instruments including electric violin, viola, cello, guitar, cittern, mandolin, lap dulcimer and hammered dulcimer, bowed and plucked psaltry, penny whistle, baroque flute, recorder, percussion and more recently the Swedish Nyckelharpa.
In 1994, after leaving a doctoral program in philosophy, Aryeh began his career as a recording and performance artist. As of 2007, he has eight published harp-orientated CDs, a DVD, and has been a primary contributor in composition, arrangement, performance and production of two crticially acclaimed CDs with the trance-rock world-fusion Ensemble, Azigza. There are currently Two Books published of his unique arrangements of Celtic and Scandinavian folk music.
He currently pursues a career as a full time free lance musician performing widely throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area region of California and abroad. While his main venues continue to be public engagements at various fairs and festivals throughout the State, his private engagements have included performing privately for Prince Charles and Camilla Bowles Parker to the CEOs of Bechtel Corporation and he had been tapped often by major talent agencies such as Boris Goldmund, TEC Entertainment, and Bayside Distribution among many others.
He has performed in countless concerts large and small, including a seated audience of 3400 in the outdoor amphitheater Dalhalla in Sweden where he shared the stage with the likes of Boys of the Lough and Dervish in 2001. Other notable appearances have include Harpcon 2000 held in Monterey California as well as Montana, Sylvia Wood's Harp Center in 2006, and the Dusty Strings in 2005. He has performed internationally in Sweden's oldest and largest music festival Musik Vid Siljan and impromptu performances at the Falun Musical Festival in the summer of 1996 and performed for the Bay Area Annual Festival of Harps in 2003, 2005 and 2006. In 2006 he again returned to Norway and Sweden to take part in the HARPA tour founded by Beth Kolle of Seattle Washington. His music has been heard national and internationally, and he has been a featured artist on the PRI syndicated radio program Echoes (PRI) on which his CD made it to #4 on the radio charts. His music is distributed world-wide under the auspices of the international record label ARC International.
In addition to his career as a Celtic harper, Aryeh has explored a wide range of musical styles utilizing all his multi-instrumental capabilities. He has collaborated with a wide variety of musicians and music producers from the progressive rock and roll band with Azigza, Medieval Sephardic Musician Lauren Pomerantz, modern Rai singer MC Rai, the psychedelic space-rock peformance artist Gilli Smythe, 'Tribal Trance Druidic Dance' music of Land of the Blind, the harp pop-jazz stylings of Verlene Shermer to the Hip Hop/Rap albums produced by Million Dollar Dream to name just a few.
Aryeh currently colloborates extensively with his partner and colleague, Windham Hill artist and Billboard Chart topping harpist and composer, Lisa Lynne.
Primarily Aryeh is the father of his 13 year old son, Abraham whose passion lies in the art of acting and literature.
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