Both Sheila and Kathy have been playing music since childhood, and in 2001 they combined their musical energies to form Willowood, a harp and flute duo. They play a wide variety of music, creating their own arrangements of Celtic, Renaissance, classical, traditional, and original songs. Together they perform for garden parties, weddings, and other gala social functions. Some of their recent performance venues include the La Jolla Festival for the Arts, the Quail Gardens Chocolate Festival, and the San Diego Children’s Hospital Celebration of Life ceremony. In addition to playing professionally, they perform frequently at benefit concerts and church events. Their new CD All in a Garden Green features a representative selection of their music – both joyous and relaxing.

Sheila, originally a keyboard player and singer, has played the harp professionally for many years. She has performed for weddings, memorial services, product promotions, holiday parties, grand openings, and fund-raising events, in both the Seattle and San Diego areas. A much sought-after harpist, Sheila has been featured on a number of recordings and continues to play extensively in a wide variety of venues – from the Carlsbad Marathon to Mother’s Day teas.

Kathy, who lived for many years in Alaska, began her musical career as a classical musician, playing flute in the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and Arctic Chamber Orchestra. She later sang and played flute in a guitar/flute duo at weddings and in restaurants. After moving to the San Diego area, she has played with many local musicians and has appeared as a guest musician on several recordings. For many years, she taught and arranged music for a small private elementary school.

New CD now available!

Arrangements of Renaissance, Celtic, classical, traditional, and original songs for Celtic Harp and Flute. (Click on red title to hear a sample. Press your browser's “Back” arrow to return here.)

Rising of the Lark (Traditional Welsh) / Ode to Joy (from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony)
Simple Gifts (Shaker dance song, by Joseph Brackett) / Southwind (Traditional Irish)
Torrey Pines (Sheila Jaffe)
The Ash Grove (Traditional Welsh)
All through the Night (Traditional Welsh) • glockenspiel: Kathy Link
All Things Bright and Beautiful (17th c. English melody adapted by Martin Shaw)
Largo (from “Winter,” the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi)
Skye Boat Song (Traditional Scottish melody collected by Annie MacLeod)
Temple Dance (Medieval, origin uncertain) /
Ungaresca (Anonymous 14th c. French) • glockenspiel: Kathy Link
Scarborough Fair (Traditional English)
Aurora Borealis (Sheila Jaffe) • chimes: Randy Renner
Sheep May Safely Graze (from the “Birthday Cantata” by J.S. Bach)
Wild Mountain Thyme (Traditional Scottish)
Tamlin’s Lullaby (Kathy Link) • cello: Tamlin Pavelsky
All in a Garden Green (Anonymous 17th c. English)

$15 each (plus $2.00 shipping per order)

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Praise for Sheila and Kathy

Your beautiful music added so much to the festival experience. We received countless compliments from our patrons. Our artists, who attend festivals throughout the U.S., were absolutely delighted with the tone and ambiance you set.
– C. G. of the La Jolla Festival of the Arts

Your music is so beautiful and restful. I play it in my class for the children at Encinitas Country Day School, and they love it.
– Deborrah Henry

Your music was so perfect for our Afternoon Tea. It made the event very elegant and charming. Thank you again.
– Kathy Davis, Simply Ambrosia

CD Review from www.sandiegotroubadour.com

There is something infinitely calming about harp and flute music. All in a Garden Green combines the talents of local Celtic harpist Sheila Jaffe and flutist Kathy Link on a collection of songs that draw from traditional Welsh and Irish folk melodies, other medieval sources, classical pieces, and a few originals for a quiet instrumental pastoral. The arrangements add few overdubs and no vocals, and the well-recorded result conveys a sense of respect for the days of old; the music on the disc is played lovingly with a minimum of focus on the players. Back in the days of Welsh taverns and Elizabethan marketplaces there were probably few showy solos and no flashy improvising, so Jaffe and Link fill the air instead with the baroque atmosphere of each tune.

Jaffe sets the tone on the disc's first track, which combines a traditional Welsh song “Rising of the Lark” with Beethoven's “Ode to Joy.” She conveys a lute in her accents, playing chords, bass lines, and finger patterns to provide a structure while at the same time decorating. Link starts by floating notes on the musical breeze, as the two then resolve into “Joy's” familiar unison melody. “Torrey Pines,” a Jaffe original, has a bit of a modern feel and makes very good use of Link's full, rich sound. It sounds like the pair sneaked in a keyboard player somewhere to record the airy tune, but none is there.

It's back to traditional music for “The Ash Grove” and “All Through the Night,” the latter featuring Link on glockenspiel. “All Things Great and Small,” which follows, brightens things up with a light, playful melody. “Temple Dance” and “Ungaresca” are played as an intricate mix, a ballad that flows into a jig-like bridge, and then back out, featuring the best playing by Jaffe on the disc. The traditional “Scarborough Fair” was meant to be heard played on flute and harp, and the two prove it on this disc with a great version, as again both players shine.

Link contributes an original, “Tamlin's Lullaby,” and the disc wraps with the traditional title song, another 17th-century work. As on the earlier songs, the pair hits all of the harmonics just right.

Sheila Jaffe and Kathy Link clearly set out to make All in a Garden Green a pastoral record of folk music in the old style, with a soft approach – calming music. It worked.

CD Review from the Light Connection

When true simplicity is gained, we shall all be happier, I’m sure, for there is soothing magic in simple ways.

In All in a Garden Green, two highly talented San Diego women team up to offer us a taste of soft sweetness in the form of their own arrangements of Renaissance, Celtic, classical, traditional, and original songs for Celtic harp and flute.

Two tracks on this lovely CD, “Torrey Pines,” and “Aurora Borealis,” are Sheila’s original compositions. Most of the others are songs you are likely to recognize, songs you’ve heard in a variety of contexts all your life. Even if none of your ancestors hailed from the British Isles, you’ll probably find them familiar.

The album opens with a glorious rendition of the traditional Welsh melody that goes back to the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Next the tune that gave me the idea for the opening of this review: the Shaker dance’s song, “Simple Gifts”, based in Irish tradition. Further on in the album, we find such traditional songs as the Welsh “The Ash Grove,” and “All Through the Night”; the English melodies “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” Scarborough Fair,” and the title track, “All in a Garden Green,” as well as “Skye Boat Song” and “Wild Mountain Thyme,” both of traditional Scottish origin. You may also recognize a Bach tune and a Vivaldi.

Making music has been a lifelong practice for both Sheila and Kathy. In 2001 they came together to form Willowood, with Sheila on harp and Kathy on flute. They play a wide variety of music for garden parties, weddings, and other gala functions. Some of their recent performance venues include the La Jolla Festival for the Arts, the Quail Gardens Chocolate Festival, and the San Diego Children’s Hospital Celebration of Life ceremony. In addition to playing professionally, they perform frequently at benefit concerts and church events.

If you’re looking for joyous serenity and you appreciate the mix of flute and harp, you couldn’t do better than to avail yourself of this CD.

– Chiwah