Sylvia's 1995 LA City Proclamation
On June 3, 1995, the Council of the City of Los Angeles issued the following proclamation, which was presented to Sylvia Woods when she was the featured performer at a southern California folk music festival.
Whereas, Sylvia Woods is a world-renowned harper and teacher, and author of over a dozen harp books, including the most popular beginning book "Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp";
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Whereas, in 1980 she won the prestigious All-Ireland Harp Championship in Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland becoming the first American ever to win the title;
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Whereas, Woods toured for several years with Robin Williamson as a member of His Merry Band and was featured on the group's three albums. Her talents have also graced the recordings of many other folk and pop artists including Jimmy Messina and Al Stewart and she has performed on movie soundtracks such as "Dead Poets Society," Sylvia released a solo album "The Harp of Brandiswhiere" containing her highly acclaimed suite for Celtic harp and played on both the nylon-strung and metal-strung Celtic harps, she is also noted as one of the few world masters of the Welsh triple-strung harp;
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Whereas, Sylvia Woods has the reputation of being a musician full of the unexpected;
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Whereas, she's not above a bit of vaudeville as her concert audiences can attest and in the course of a show she will play wild gypsy tunes and sparse, magical pieces on her harps;
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Whereas, Woods accompanied the school choir for many years, played classical pieces, and also experimented with the flute and guitar and when she entered Johnston College, University of Redlands, she enrolled as a music major and within a week she changed her major;
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Whereas, her music education did not stop. The college owned three concert harps and she took advantage of the opportunity to learn to play and after graduating in 1971, Sylvia attended classes at California State University in Los Angeles, so that she could study with the world-renowned harp virtuoso, Susann McDonald;
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Whereas, after graduation she was introduced to the Celtic harp and later found herself traveling to Ireland to purchase a folk harp;
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Whereas, Sylvia Woods actively works toward her goal of creating a world-wide renaissance of the folk harp and she accomplishes this through: concert tours, private lessons, master classes, workshops, lecture/demonstrations and TV and radio appearances;
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Whereas, her store in Glendale has the largest selection of harps in the U.S. and her mail order catalog goes out to over 40,000 people:
Now, therefore be it resolved, that by the adoption of this resolution, the members of the Los Angeles City Council do hereby commend Sylvia Woods for her contribution to the arts and commend and congratulate her on this special occasion.
Resolution by Laura Chick, Councilmember, 3rd District
I hereby certify that the foregoing resolution was adopted by the Council of the City of Los Angeles at its meeting held June 3, 1995. - John Ferraro, President of the Council