|
This harpist
is 29. She was classically trained reaching "Grade 8 with
Distinction" on concert pedal harp, but she now
specializes in the Celtic harp. She is a full-time
harpist, playing extensively throughout the UK and abroad.
In 2007 she performed as a
soloist to 25,000 people in the 02 Millenium Dome and in
the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of the "Young
Voices" Tour. She was also chosen as one of 6 winners of
the "Danny Kyle Open Stage Award" at the Celtic
Connections Festival 2007 - picked out from among 82
different musical acts competing for the title. She was
the 'Harper of All Britain' in 2000 and won it again in
2002.
Together with her love of Celtic music, She has been
studying Irish, Scots Gaelic and Welsh and has a degree in
Celtic Studies from Trinity College, Cambridge.
She is one of a select number of young musicians to be
accepted onto the UK's Live Music Now! scheme which has
led to solo recitals in theatres and arts centres across
the UK, as well as regular concert tours to a huge range
of community venues such as special schools, nursing homes
and hospitals.
She is fast gaining a reputation both in the UK and
abroad as an extremely talented and expressive harper. Her
aim is to show a new approach to harp-playing, using the
Celtic harp
as a strong melody instrument.
She's first solo album 'Jumping Ahead' of Irish and
Scottish harp music with backing
from a variety of world music instruments was launched
in London in 2003. Her second album 'From the
Crooked Tree' with The She Earis Trio (harp, bass and
drums) was released in 2007 and combines Celtic music with
jazz backing.
She has also recorded on numerous other albums including
the band
album
with
London-Irish Ceilidh Band
'Siansa'
(2001), two CDs "Through These
Eyes" and "A Hundred Thousand Angels" by pop singer
Luce Drayton
(in 1999 and 2000) and the album "Shake the Blossom Early"
by London-Irish singer Helen Roche (2004). She has guested
on the album 'Craic of Dawn' by the German-Irish band An
Tor (2006) and on "Ear to Ere", an American/Welsh
cross-over album produced by Red Kite Records (2007) and
with Welsh trio Triban (2007).
She has given numerous solo harp recitals around the
world. As a member of "The Irish Variety Show", she has
been on 14 tours of the USA to 20 different states since
March 2002. She has been on 5 tours to Germany since 1999
including solo performances at the 'Irish Spirits'
festival in Frankfurt. She has given concerts in Amsterdam
(1997), France (where she led an Irish harp workshop in
Paris in April 2001), Belgium, Holland and Ireland (May
2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007).
She makes regular radio and TV appearances (both
performing - and also presenting in most of the Celtic
languages!) for BBC Northern Ireland, Radio Wales, Radio
na Gaeltachta, ITV Wales and S4C.
In October 2006 she toured Nova Scotia, Canada with a
group of Scottish musicians and dancers from the Isle of
Barra. The tour was televised for a Scots Gaelic TV
programme
"Fagail Bharraidh" on BBC Scotland (January 2007).
|
