Electrifying harp concert at Brewery

Forget the image of harp music as serene.

Grammy-nominated, harpist Deborah Henson-Conant transforms the stereo-type with an energetic performance that blends blues, flamenco-Celtic-funk-folk and jazz with storytelling flare of a bard. A specially designed harp held by straps allows Henson-Conant to wail and move like a rock guitarist in an electric performance that blows away traditions.

Henson-Conant takes over the stage at the Brewery Arts Center Performance Hall at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

"The transformation of my harp is a metaphor for what happens when we break personal stereotypes and authentically express who we are," Henson-Conant says in her printed material. "That's what I try to do in every show."

Henson-Conant began to break the stereotype in New York. One night she dragged her harp from the dining lounge where she was playing to the jazz lounge and asked to sit in. She fell in love with jazz, blues and improvisation, transforming her career and the harp.

In Edinburgh, she discovered the smaller Celtic harp and later collaborated with Europe's top harp-builder to develop the first commercially-available carbon-fibre electric strap-on harp.

Now free to move around the stage, Henson-Conant joined the ancient musical tradition of the singing, storytelling bard with the modern energy of rock 'n' roll.

In the ensuing years, Henson-Conant has created nearly a dozen orchestral shows, culminating in the Grammy nominated "Invention & Alchemy" Project. More recently she has fused her success as a performer, her love of storytelling and her desire to write musical theater in the one-woman musical "What the Hell are you doing in the Waiting Room for Heaven?"

See her once and you'll never look at the harp the same way again.

The Brewery Arts Center is located at 449 W. King Street in Carson City. Tickets for Deborah Henson-Conant are $20 and $23. $3 Discount for Students, Seniors and BAC Members. Call 883-1976 or go to www.breweryarts.org.