Identical metal-playing harp twins enchant St. John's
Imagine two identical harpists playing Iron Maiden in perfect synchronization. No, that’s not a scene from a bizarre dream — it’s a musical act playing in St. John’s this week.
The Harp Twins are Camille and Kennerly Kitt, two sisters who are internationally recognized as “the world’s only identical twin professional harpists.”
“We’re really close. I don’t know if we have a lot of separate passions, we do everything together,” Kennerly Kitt told CBC Radio's St. John’s Morning Show.
But the sisters don’t play traditional harp music — they specialize in duet covers of metal, rock and pop classics.
“The way that we see it, there’s already so many people that are playing [traditional harp] music, ” said Kennerly.
“We’re going where no harp has gone before.”
The duo's dozens of music videos cover everything from Metallica to the Rolling Stones. The videos show the sisters playing in graveyards, building ruins and beaches.
The twins don’t just look the same, they also live their entire lives in-sync. The Chicago-born sisters dress identically, they went to the same university, they’re both black belts in Tae Kwon Do and they both know sign language.
“I think we’re lucky because we were born with our best friends,” said Camille Kitt.
“It’s a blessing … we don’t see any need to necessarily do a lot of stuff separately because we enjoy life together.”
Classically trained musicians
The Kitts started playing when they were 12 years old. They took odd babysitting and dog-walking jobs to raise money for their first shared harp.
They went on to study harp performance at a classical conservatory, both earning degrees from the Conservatory of Music at Wheaton College in Illinois.
It was there that the twins began to branch out, playing and arranging the kind of music they liked to listen to: metal and rock.
The twins say that classical training gave them the knowledge and skills they needed to play the music they do now.
While they can still play a Bach sonata, the sisters say metal and rock music are their true passion.
“It’s the kind of music we think speaks best through us, and we just love it,” said Camille.
The Harp Twins played at the St. John’s Northwest Rotary Gala Dinner on Saturday night. They are performing a free show at the board game cafe Mochanopoly on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
Correction : An earlier version of this story had said the Harp Twins would be playing a free concert on Wednesday night. The concert is actually scheduled for Monday night. (Mar 13, 2016 8:17 PM)