Who is Hilary Stagg Harp Player

With a high school band sousaphone background, Hilary Stagg (named for Sir Edmund Hillary the famous mountaineer) was an electrician when in his mid-twenties he attended an Andreas Vollenweider concert.

He was enthralled and so inspired that he purchased a small harp. It was a delightful challenge for him to use his knowledge as an electrician in amplifying the instrument and his custom amplification was superb.

He tried formal lessons but quickly decided he would learn to play the harp a different way.

Hilary believed in and practiced lucid dreaming and developed a way of dancing with the music in his dreams a way of exploring and composing music in his "sleep" that became the core of his compositions.

As he experimented Hilary developed a gentle yet powerful melodic style that gave new meaning to soothing and relaxing music. He began performing regularly, refining his technique and confidence.

The results of his labor and dedication can be heard on seven titles for Real Music, Beyond the Horizon, Feather Light, Dream Spiral, The Edge of Forever, Winter Magic (Christmas selections), Sweet Return and finally Hilary Stagg a tribute.

Hilary died suddenly after a brief illness in June 1999. His music is our gift and ready to comfort and uplift at the touch of a button.

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Hilary Stagg also credits the sweet melodic stylings of Loggins & Messina, the Doobie Brothers, and the Moody Blues as influences for his music.
Loggins and Messina are a American rock-pop duo consisting of Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina who achieved their success in the early to mid 1970s. Among their well-known songs are "Danny's Song" and "Your Mama Don't Dance".
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. They have sold over 30 million albums in the United States from the 1970s to the present. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.

The Moody Blues are an English band originally from Erdington in the city of Birmingham. Founding members Michael Pinder and Ray Thomas performed an initially rhythm and blues-based sound in 1964 along with Graeme Edge and others, and were later joined by John Lodge and Justin Hayward as they inspired and evolved the progressive rock style. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music most notably in their seminal 1967 album Days of Future Passed. Have sold 50 million albums worldwide and have been awarded 14 platinum and gold discs. They remain active as of 2010.

Genre: Musical & Performing Arts

Synopsis: Culled from his popular album DREAM SPIRAL, the music of the late New Age harpist Hilary Stagg provides a beautiful backdrop for natural imagery. Featured images include the forests, lakes, mountains, and wildlife of some of America's most treasured... Culled from his popular album DREAM SPIRAL, the music of the late New Age harpist Hilary Stagg provides a beautiful backdrop for natural imagery. Featured images include the forests, lakes, mountains, and wildlife of some of America's most treasured lands, including Cape Cod, the Adirondacks, Yosemite, and Yellowstone.
Rated: Unrated
Running Time: 1 hr.

On DVD: Nov 18, 2003

Hilary Stagg was working as an electrician when he heard Swiss harp sensation Andreas Vollenweider in concert. At that moment the Northern California native was inspired to learn all he could about the electro-acoustic harp.

A few years later he was releasing his own albums using his knowledge as an electrician to amplify his instrument to suit the soft dreamy music he was developing. Stagg also credits the sweet melodic styling of Loggins & Messina, the Doobie Brothers, and the Moody Blues as influences.

Over the course of his recordings Hilary Stagg has grown increasingly accomplished as a performer and composer Linda Kohanovand All Music Guide .
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Like electric guitars, electric harps are based on their acoustic originals, and there are both solid body and electro-acoustic models available.

A solid body electric harp has no hollow sound box and thus makes very little noise when not amplified. Alan Stivell writes in his book Telenn la harpe bretonne of his first dreams of electric harps going back to the late 1950s.

He designed and had made a solid body (after different electric-acoustic harps) electric harp at the turn of the 1970s-80s, about the same time as Rudiger Oppermann. Alan Stivell later (early 80s) had a meeting with Joel Garnier who decided to create a model.

Alan Stivell went on independently to design and have different single models been made with Leo Goas-Straajer (before the Camac - Alan Stivell last experiment). The first such commercially manufactured instrument was made by Camac also helped later by the request of jazz-pop harpist, Deborah Henson-Conant.

The result looked like a light framed Celtic style harp, but each string had a crystal (Piezo) pickup at its base. They can be plugged into various amplification systems and players are able to use effects pedals similarly to electric guitar players.

Another part of Henson-Conant's request was that she should be able to move around the stage with the harp and thus the smaller electric harps usually include a system to strap the harp to one's body.

Solid body electric harps are usually lever harps, though solid body pedal harps have also been built. Since the cost of a pedal harp is so high it is more economical for a harpist to purchase an electro-acoustic model of pedal harp as it can also be played without amplification.

An electro-acoustic harp looks nearly identical to a regular acoustic harp whether lever or pedal. It too has pickups at the base of each string and some also contain a separate pickup inside the sound box enabling the harpist to mix the signals from both kinds of pickup to produce special effects. Often such harps include an on board preamplifier.

One of the most famous electro-acoustic pedal harp models is Camac's "Big Blue", finished in a striking electric blue color.

Electric MIDI harps are also produced as well as harps featuring built in optic fiber and LED lights.


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Hilary Stagg had such a love for his music and the harp music that Hilary played was like hearing an Angel with a harp.

The first time I heard Hilary Stagg so many years ago to this very day the sound of Angels sing seems to come from his music.

I am sad that there will be no more of Hilary's music to touch my heart but I will always rejoice in the gift of music he has given myself and so many others.

For all time we do have Hilary Stagg music's with us.