Simple Gifts brings musical message to Tarentum church

When Linda Littleton and Karen Hirshon are on stage, no words need to be spoken.

“We understand each other so well, all we need to do is give each other a look during a concert, and we just know what it means,” says Littleton. “Our personalities clicked the minute we started performing together. We are very much in sync.”

They are definitely in perfect harmony, just like the songs they play and sing as Simple Gifts, known as “two women playing 12 instruments.”

The duo will perform at 1:30 p.m. at Logan Place Senior Living in Lower Burrell and at 7 p.m. at Central Presbyterian Church in Tarentum, both on April 12. There is a potluck dinner before the church performance.

The event is free.

They also will travel to Avella, Washington County, for a ukulele workshop at 4 p.m. and musicians’ workshop at 7 p.m. on April 10, and a children’s concert at 10 a.m. and a concert open to all at 7 p.m. on April 11 at the Independence Township Community Center.

A long history

Littleton and Hirshon live in State College and have been performing together for 23 years. The pair do about 100 concerts a year.

“We have a great relationship,” Hirshon says. “We each would not sound better without the other one, and it didn’t take us long to realize that.”

“They are definitely worth seeing and hearing,” says Dave Rankin of Natrona Heights, a lifelong member of Central Presbyterian Church, who is handling publicity for the concert. “They have a following, and it will be a fun event. They play amazing music and also teach the audience about the instruments.”

Teaching moments

Their performance is about more than music and singing. It’s about sharing their passion for what they do and passing on their knowledge to audience members, both young and old.

“With the children in the audience, we explain the instruments and even the adults learn some things, too,” Littleton says. “It will be educational and interactive.”

Faith Community Partners, the church’s mission arm, arranged the performance through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, which is administered by the Pittsburgh Arts Council.

“Our mission is everybody should play an instrument,” Littleton says. “Music does for you what you can’t get any other way. We love what we do.”

What’s in a name?

The name “Simple Gifts” comes from a Shaker song.

The song begins: ‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free…”

“The name just fit, “ says Littleton. “There is such an incredible power through music where you can reach people. Part of what we do is to try to reach people through our music, to move them. Music brings people joy. It’s not about how well you play, but more importantly about how much you enjoy doing it.”

The music

When they teach about an instrument, they begin with the first note, so everyone in the audience can learn the intricacies of what they are playing.

Littleton says it’s never too late to learn. She’s taught people in their 80s.

“We love to interact with the audience,” says Littleton, who is mostly self-taught. “We like to add humor and we often improvise.”

She began playing the violin and says that everything else is relatively easy once you’ve learned the violin.

They switch with ease among fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, guitjo, recorders, bowed psaltery, hammered dulcimer, baritone fiddle, guitar and percussion.

Drawing on an impressive variety of ethnic folk styles, this award-winning duo plays everything from lively Irish jigs and down-home American reels to hard-driving Klezmer frailachs and haunting Gypsy melodies. They also spice it up with the distinctive rhythms of Balkan dance music, the lush sounds of Scandinavian twin fiddling and original compositions written in a traditional style, according to the Simple Gifts website.

Combining tradition with innovation, Simple Gifts creates some of the finest arrangements in folk music today: swing fiddle creeps into a Romanian dance, spoons show up in an Irish reel and a blues lick introduces a Klezmer melody, the website says.

“The basic aspect of music is for humans,” says Hirshon. “And I feel very connected to that music. Music is about craftsmanship and can be meditative; it can be healing, and it can bring back so many wonderful memories. It has so many dimensions.”

Details: 724-224-9220 or simplegiftsmusic.com