Willamette University presents Emmy-Nominated musician and storyteller John Doan with his acclaimed “Christmas Unplugged – Reclaiming the Holiday Spirit” program. Imagine stepping into a time machine with Dr. Who to experience the world when people…
Join John Doan and the participants of the Annual Harp Guitar Retreat 2014 for an intimate evening concert in John’s own living room. Although we have had people come from far off this is especially…
The 2013 Christmas Tour is on with concerts all over the Pacific Northwest and afar.
For specifics, check the calendar for tour dates and ticket information.
John will be performing an updated version of his popular, Emmy-nominated live show, “Christmas Unplugged: Reclaiming the Holiday Spirit” in Oregon state in Lake Oswego, Salem, Silverton, Tualatin, Portland, and Lincoln City throughout December. It’s fun for children of all ages.
People are concerned about the isolation in this digital era of Individual entertainment choices (according to a recent American Academy of Pediatrics study children ages 8 to 18 average more than seven hours daily using some kind of entertainment media). John worked over the past year to revamp the show a bit to reach out to a wider audience, still bringing the fun and laughter along as he takes you on a historical journey back to a time when we entertained ourselves with stories and music, through to today, a time when we are retreating behind technology, reminding us that we need to make this season and every season a time for stories, laughter, and music.
For those of you within driving distance of Salem, Oregon or who are visiting the area I will be giving an intimate house concert (8pm) in my own living room July 6th with a potluck (6:30pm)…
Join John Doan and writers from the Pacific Northwest at the annual “Lend an Ear, Come and Hear” poetry and prose reading event. John will be playing harp guitar and sharing stories with the family-friendly…
John Doan will be taking Europe by storm again this year, delighting audiences with his magical harp guitar and delightful stories.
The tour this year includes a Harp Guitar Workshop on May 26, 2013, in Scotland as part of the Edinburgh Guitar and Music Festival. John will be offering additional workshops, seminars, and special performances along with his concert tour.
The tour includes Scotland, Britain, and the Netherlands this year in addition to other European countries.
John Doan will be presenting a one hour seminar on the Harp Guitar, exploring the various styles and techniques associated with this historical string instrument at the Edinburgh Guitar and Music Festival. This is a…
This year celebrates the 26th annual tour of John Doan’s Victorian Christmas Concert. This year’s tour includes Oregon, California, and Arizona. Tickets sell out fast, so get yours now.
The festive concert is a live version of Doan’s Emmy-nominated Public Broadcasting television special, which re-enacts what it might have been like to celebrate Christmas a century ago. “The show explores how Victorians invented many Christmas traditions we remember and quite a few we have forgotten,” said the Willamette music professor. “The 20-string harp guitar, classical banjo and ukelin are just a few of the original instruments that will be featured. The aim is to recapture the feeling of a time before radio and TV when our ancestors provided most of their own musical entertainment at home, especially during the holidays.”
Doan plays more than a dozen turn-of-the-century instruments once popular in American parlors, on vaudeville stages and in mandolin orchestras. He explains their history in a entertaining and often zany fashion, shows slides of old catalogues and archival photographs, and leads the audience in singing (or whistling) many of our most beloved carols. John will include several arrangements from his CD, “Wrapped in White: Visions of Christmas Past.”
I suppose if one were living life fully, each moment in each day would seem like an adventure. Travel takes me away from all that is ordinary which is no doubt extraordinary except for that I have gotten use to everything and everyone that is usually around me. Last December a fan of mine in some ways awoke me from my waking sleep when he wrote me from Moscow and inquired if I had plans of performing there in the future. My custom is to write back and explore if there are any possibilities. I then received an extraordinary response from Жилин Андрей, or should I say, Andrew Jilan who claimed that when he was fifteen he had three favorite musicians/groups that he listened to. I never dreamed that I would ever be in league with Jimi Page and Iron Maiden but there I was raised high in the pantheon of cultural icons. We skyped each other and set a week mid May for my debut concerts in Russia and perhaps for the first harp guitar concerts heard there as well.
After having performed in Ukraine and Germany my wife Deirdra and I arrived on my Birthday in Moscow. Andrew had prearranged a cab – basically someone who has highjacked the family car and has found a few hours of employment (the cabbies at the airport charge several times more).
Andrew had never received a rock star before. I didn’t know if he was being kind and shaved part of his head to emulate me or that he enjoyed looking like Vladimir Lenin but his gentle demeanor put us at ease as we rushed through the strange landscape of endless apartment structures and construction detours.
Muriel Anderson and John Doan will be performing together in concert in Portland, Oregon, on June 20, 2012, just after John returns from his successful European Tour. The two virtuosos of harp guitar will be…