Poolside Performances are an exploration of experimental music, movement, and mark-making. The Mirrored Glass Detroit Harp Trio redefines the sound of traditional harp ensembles. Originating from the vibrant heart of Detroit and building on the legacy of Black harpists from the city, this unique trio brings a fresh, innovative approach to the classic harp, challenging conventions and expanding the boundaries of harp technique and musical expression. Under the Peristyle, this trio will reverberate with lush elegance in the summer sun.
Comprising three exceptionally skilled harpists, the Mirrored Glass Detroit Harp Trio explores new frontiers in harp performance. They employ a wide array of techniques, including the Salzedo Method, electro-acoustics, percussive techniques, and other contemporary methods, creating sounds that are both familiar and strikingly original. Their approach to the harp focuses as much on rhythm and texture as it does on melody and harmony, resulting in an intriguing blend of classical roots and contemporary flair.
The trio’s repertoire spans a diverse range of musical genres, seamlessly weaving elements of voice, neo-soul, classical, jazz, blues, and world music into their performances. This eclecticism is a testament to their desire to push the harp beyond its traditional boundaries. Whether reinterpreting classical masterpieces or creating original compositions, the Mirrored Glass Detroit Harp Trio delivers a musical experience that is as unexpected as it is captivating.
Ahya Simone
Working across myriad disciplines, Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist, performer, filmmaker, and harpist, Ahya Simone’s many-pronged practice is bound by an exploration of black identity, aesthetics, and community building.
Simone’s engagement with music stems from a childhood spent in the black church, where she learned to sing. In high school, she began to play the harp and became the principal harpist for the Wayne State University Wind Symphony upon her graduation.
Simone is a featured artist for “Showing Up, Showing Out” – a film dedicated to Motown’s legacy and its future in collaboration with Carhartt, Dazed, and NTS Radio. Her unique artistry landed her a spot on Kelela’s “Take Me A_Part, The Remixes” and was recognized as a 2018 Sundance/Knight Foundation, 2017 Detroit Narrative Agency 2.0, and 2018 Kresge Artist Fellow. She is also the creator, co-writer, and director of the upcoming fictional web series, “Femme Queen Chronicles,” a story of four black trans women in Detroit. Initially exploring film through scoring local shorts, such as “Treasure: From Tragedy to Trans Justice Mapping a Detroit Story (2015),” she uses film and sound to explore ideas around identity, vulnerability, language, and existence.
Anjel “AnJelic” Mantel
AnJelic creates music for beings that feel like they aren’t of this planet. These frequencies are for the voiceless, the anxious, and the invisible. Harpist, Singer/songwriter, and producer, AnJelic began teaching herself how to independently create her music in her bedroom at the age of 16. AnJelic has always seen music as the bridge to her deepest fantasies and desires as she grew up amidst the chaos of her hometown, Detroit Michigan. Music is her release, and the portal to her destiny.
Ackeem Salmon
Jamaican-American multidisciplinary artist specializing in immersive experiences across various mediums, including music composition, performance, film, projections, photography, paintings, drawings, and site-specific installations.
Using the harp, Ackeem explores the interplay of physics, space, time, sequences, and patterns in connection to human emotions and the subconscious. He perceives music and instrument physicality as transient elements of life and personal existence. This perspective enables him to encapsulate memories of his upbringing in Jamaica and experiences in diverse cultures and spaces into sonic timelines and memories through improvised and composed pieces.
Ackeem, a recent recipient of the Interdisciplinary Work award from the Kresge Foundation in 2023, has performed in notable spaces such as Théâtre Douze and Galerie Joseph adjacent to the Place des Vosges Square in Paris, France, as well as various venues throughout Metro Detroit, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall, Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Cube, and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. His visual artwork has been exhibited at locations like the Val de Vie Estate in Cape Town, South Africa, Sotheby’s Auction House in New York, Negatif Plus in Paris, France, the Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, Michigan, and the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, MI, among other prominent venues.
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