Brendan Power
UK-based New Zealander Brendan Power is acknowledged by many as one of the most versatile and creative harmonica players in the world today.
He has released over 20 albums to date in a wide range of styles, and featuring many original compositions. As a session player Brendan has recorded with the likes of Sting, Kate Bush and Van Morrison, and his playing has featured on several Hollywood film soundtracks (eg. 2008 Oscar Winner ‘Atonement’, Jackie Chan’s ‘Shanghai Noon’). In addition to his Blues and Jazz skills he is an expert player of Irish traditional music, winning the All-Ireland Championship and touring worldwide as a featured soloist in the Riverdance Show.
Brendan’s other great passion is harmonica tech innovation! Constantly inventing, he uses CAD design and CNC machines to create a wide range of cutting-edge custom harps that push the boundaries of performance, selling them online since 2000 to players seeking fresh sounds. Some notable models have been the Twin Harmonica System, the Overblow-Booster series, SlipSlider series, the OctaHarp & OctaChrom Selectable, the Switch-Harp, the Modular-Reed Harmonica, the AsiaBend, and the Slide-Diatonic. He invented the now widely used half-valving setup for diatonics and chromatics, and has created several original harmonica tunings that are gaining popularity amongst players worldwide: Paddy-Richter, PowerBender, PowerDraw, and PowerChromatic.
Website
YouTube
André Coelho
Portugal-based Brazilian André Coelho has an MBA in Project Management. He worked for 10 years in Sao Paulo area with auditing and quality management in several different industries, accumulating a valuable knowledge in business. Not long after moving to Portugal, in 2019
he shifted directions to become a full time harmonica technician. A harmonica player for almost 30 years, he was always fascinated about the instrument and was always interested on how it worked and how it could be improved to fit the needs of old school to modern players. His work quickly attracted players from different levels, beginners to professionals, and his customer base steadily grew outside Europe to Americas and Asia.
Late in 2022 after having one of his harmonicas thoroughly assessed by Joe Filisko, he was invited to join the Hohner Affiliated Customizers group, along with some of the most respected and recognized customizers in the harmonica scene today. Prior to that, he started working with Brendan Power helping him to launch the Modular Reed and later on the Slipslider MK3 and Overblow Booster MK2. Not limited to diatonics, he also builds custom chromatic harmonicas and offers repair, maintenance and optimization services to other models.
Apart from that, André also has a great interest in electronics. He designed effect pedals and microphones that have very favourable reviews from the harmonica community. André is a Hohner Featured Artist and has recorded two blues rock albums back in Brazil.
Website
Hohner Affiliated Customizers