Quincy Wig Newspaper interview.

I had an interview with this lovely lady from the Quincy Wig and this is what she published. The photo at the end of these two articles is the one that the photographer took. I thought you might like to read these.





Published: 2/24/2009 Updated: 2/24/2009




By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
NAUVOO, Ill.
STRAINS OF "Abide With Me" played on the harp fill the living room of Irene Tukuafu's home.
It's music Tukafu loves, played on an instrument she made.
"I love making music," she said. "I want to build harps as long as I can."
Tukuafu has built 41 harps, each taking about two weeks to create from a kit in her basement workshop.
"It looks pretty messy down here," the Nauvoo woman said. "I do lots of work down here."
Tukuafu also builds the hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, suitcase bass, bowed psaltery and other instruments related to the harp.
"A psaltery and dulcimer all come from zithers, which are a form of harp. Even the guitar was a form of harp; it was a lyre," Tukuafu said.
"The psaltery is the easiest instrument to play, not necessarily the easiest to tune. Each note has its separate string. This instrument I sell to people that always wanted to play the violin but don't want to deal with two years of screeching. You can easily play something from the beginning."
Music from the bowed psaltery beautifully complements the harp "at any time of year, especially at Christmas," Tukuafu said.
"My husband plays the autoharp. He plays the guitar and the mouth organ," she said. We would go as a family serenading at Christmastime because this is the Tongan tradition, to bring music to people that are shut-ins, that are neighbors, to hospitals and rest homes."
A Christmas present to her husband, Tomasi, introduced Tukuafu to the harp.
She saw a small harp during an early music class at the University of Hawaii.
"I sent away for that harp and gave it to my husband for Christmas," she said. "My husband knew I had lots of music in me. He said, 'Why don't you learn how to play it first.' I said: 'That's a good idea. I'd like to.' "
At a harp convention in Utah, she discovered harp kits sold by Musicmakers based in Stillwater, Minn., and bought one with no idea how to build it. Help came from the industrial arts teacher at the high school where her husband taught.
"He said, 'I'll teach you how to use the tools.' It changed my life," she said. "I built that harp, and I did tole painting on it. Someone else saw it and said, 'Can you make me one.' I became a harp maker."
The Tukuafus came to Nauvoo in October 2006, moving from Ashland, Ore., where they'd settled after living 30 years in Hawaii. They raised 14 children and are "up to" 45 grandchildren.
"I came here because a girlfriend I had known for 28 years was building a restaurant and wanted tables for the restaurant," she said. "I not only make instruments, but I make tables.
"When I came here, I fell in love with a small town."
Now they're putting down roots by building a roundhouse on the Mississippi. The home, designed of logs with a 5-foot skylight and arched windows, will be filled with music, much of it played by Tukuafu and her husband.
"We do this every day," he said after the couple played a duet on the dulcimer and autoharp.
She also plays with a purpose as a practitioner through the International Harp Therapy Program.
"I take my harp, either small or big, and play for people that are either dying through hospice groups, or I play in hospitals to help people feel better. They need something soothing," she said. "It is the goal of my friend who founded this organization to have a harp in every hospital by the year 2020."
-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379Published: 2/24/2009 Updated: 2/24/2009
By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
NAUVOO, Ill.
STRAINS OF "Abide With Me" played on the harp fill the living room of Irene Tukuafu's home.
It's music Tukafu loves, played on an instrument she made.
"I love making music," she said. "I want to build harps as long as I can."
Tukuafu has built 41 harps, each taking about two weeks to create from a kit in her basement workshop.
"It looks pretty messy down here," the Nauvoo woman said. "I do lots of work down here."
Tukuafu also builds the hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, suitcase bass, bowed psaltery and other instruments related to the harp.
"A psaltery and dulcimer all come from zithers, which are a form of harp. Even the guitar was a form of harp; it was a lyre," Tukuafu said.
"The psaltery is the easiest instrument to play, not necessarily the easiest to tune. Each note has its separate string. This instrument I sell to people that always wanted to play the violin but don't want to deal with two years of screeching. You can easily play something from the beginning."
Music from the bowed psaltery beautifully complements the harp "at any time of year, especially at Christmas," Tukuafu said.
"My husband plays the autoharp. He plays the guitar and the mouth organ," she said. We would go as a family serenading at Christmastime because this is the Tongan tradition, to bring music to people that are shut-ins, that are neighbors, to hospitals and rest homes."
A Christmas present to her husband, Tomasi, introduced Tukuafu to the harp.
She saw a small harp during an early music class at the University of Hawaii.
"I sent away for that harp and gave it to my husband for Christmas," she said. "My husband knew I had lots of music in me. He said, 'Why don't you learn how to play it first.' I said: 'That's a good idea. I'd like to.' "
At a harp convention in Utah, she discovered harp kits sold by Musicmakers based in Stillwater, Minn., and bought one with no idea how to build it. Help came from the industrial arts teacher at the high school where her husband taught.
"He said, 'I'll teach you how to use the tools.' It changed my life," she said. "I built that harp, and I did tole painting on it. Someone else saw it and said, 'Can you make me one.' I became a harp maker."
The Tukuafus came to Nauvoo in October 2006, moving from Ashland, Ore., where they'd settled after living 30 years in Hawaii. They raised 14 children and are "up to" 45 grandchildren.
"I came here because a girlfriend I had known for 28 years was building a restaurant and wanted tables for the restaurant," she said. "I not only make instruments, but I make tables.
"When I came here, I fell in love with a small town."
Now they're putting down roots by building a roundhouse on the Mississippi. The home, designed of logs with a 5-foot skylight and arched windows, will be filled with music, much of it played by Tukuafu and her husband.
"We do this every day," he said after the couple played a duet on the dulcimer and autoharp.
She also plays with a purpose as a practitioner through the International Harp Therapy Program.
"I take my harp, either small or big, and play for people that are either dying through hospice groups, or I play in hospitals to help people feel better. They need something soothing," she said. "It is the goal of my friend who founded this organization to have a harp in every hospital by the year 2020."
-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379

This goes with the interview with the Quincy Wig Newspaper....quoted...

Published: 2/24/2009 Updated: 2/24/2009
By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
NAUVOO, Ill. -- Nauvoo doesn't have a rich history of harp music, nor was the harp a common instrument in the 1840s when the Mormons settled the community.
"When Brigham Young crossed the plains and settled in Utah, he got a harp for his daughters to learn how to play," Irene Tukuafu said.
What happened with that harp helped inspire a dream of Tukuafu's.
A blind Mormon man from Wales came to the United States with his own harp. He left the harp in New York for later shipment and began the trek by foot across the Plains to Utah.
"Brigham Young heard of this and said he shall use my daughters' harp until his comes from New York," Tukuafu said, and as the man played and sang, "he was a bard of Utah."
Harp therapy classes taken by Tukuafu told similar stories from a rich tradition in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
"In the 17th, 16th and 15th centuries, when a child or an adult became blind, there would be a sponsor that would give them a harp and harp lessons. When they got good, they gave them a cart, a driver and a horse. They became the bards of Ireland," Tukuafu said.
She wants to do the same thing using harps that she builds.
"I've given three harps away to blind children," she said. "I plan to do 100 more. I don't know how I will do it. I'm hoping I can find some kind of grant."
Her plan could brighten the future for the blind.
"Blind people have talents. Many are very musical," she said. "I cheat. I do music. I see little black notes on the page, but there are people that are marvelous blind harp players. I believe there are many more."
-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379

The picture that came with the Quincy Wig Newspaper

this was a great picture of me, even if I do say so myself.....a few days before turning 68.............oh happy day.