4 Girls 4 Harps
|
Thursday 24th March 2011
|
The programme includes |
Handel |
Eleanor Turner Keziah Thomas |
Harriet Adie Angharad Wyn Jones |
Sample their music here:
|
4 Girls/4 Harps was formed in 2000 and is made up of four award-winning harpists, three of whom studied with Daphne Boden at the Royal College of Music. They have given concerts at many venues and festivals including the Two Moors, Windsor, Bromsgrove and Three Choirs Festivals and were chosen for the Blackheath Halls Young Artist’s Series 2003-4. Their second CD, ‘Fireworks and Fables’, was released in March 2009. The Quartet's performances are as accessible as they are innovative and dynamic. Eleanor, Harriet, Keziah and Angharad all enjoy talking to the audience about the harp and their music, and concert programmes usually include one solo item from each member to showcase everyone individually. Composers today are discovering the enormous musical excitement and variety the harp is capable of, and with four harps the scope is wider still. The Quartet strongly supports new music and is continually developing their eclectic repertoire. So far, they have commissioned and premiered four dramatically contrasting works: Edward Watson’s A Celtic Springtime (sponsored by the Vaughan Williams Trust); The Island by Eleanor Turner; Sun, Moon and Stars by Harriet Adie and Edward Longstaff’s Saraswati. Committed to raising awareness of the harp in the community, the four frequently play in diverse situations from music therapy projects and special needs schools to glamorous cruise ships and even fields! Their harps can also be spotted in hospitals, schools and prisons, performing in outreach initiatives such as the Live Music Now! scheme and the London Philharmonic Orchestra Playerlink project. They are also well-travelled outside the UK and have played in France, Switzerland, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Norway and New York. |
||
Preparing for the concert in November 2007 |
||
ELEANOR TURNER Eleanor Turner is an internationally recognised soloist and chamber musician. She has recently been honoured with a prestigious Wingate Scholarship for advanced studies in contemporary music and in March 2010 Eleanor won Third Prize in the Netherlands International Harp Competition. She performed the Ginastera Harp Concerto in the final stage with the Utrecht Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and gained the most public votes from the audience, thus receiving the Peutz Audience Award. Eleanor started playing the harp aged five and made her concerto debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall when she was fifteen. In 2008 Eleanor performed at the Wigmore Hall in London and since then has performed across Europe, supported by Salvi Harps. She won First Prize and the William Mathias Prize in the Cardiff European Harp Competition 2007, winning a magnificent Salvi concert harp. www.eleanorturner.com KEZIAH THOMAS Keziah Thomas has maintained a busy career as both a soloist and chamber musician, appearing in major venues and festivals throughout the UK and abroad, including a solo tour of Japan for Aoyama Harps, and performances at World Harp Congresses in Geneva, Dublin and Amsterdam. She was the winner of the 2003 London Harp Competition and the 2008 Camac Harp Competition. In addition to her performances of the standard harp repertoire, she is dedicated to the exploration of new music and in autumn 2010 will perform the World Première of a specially commissioned new work by Andy Scott in her debut recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. Born in London, Keziah Thomas began studying the harp at the age of ten and earned an ARCM performance diploma and solo debuts at the Royal Albert Hall and the Wigmore Hall whilst still at school. Keziah earned a Bachelor’s degree from the Royal College of Music where she studied with Daphne Boden and was awarded the Douglas Whittaker, Jack Morrison and Marie Goossens Harp Prizes. HARRIET ADIE Harriet Adie was an Instrumental Exhibitioner at Balliol College, Oxford where she read Music. Before this she was a student of Daphne Boden at the Royal College of Music Junior Department where she was successful in many competitions. She continued her studies with Imogen Barford at Trinity College of Music, supported by awards from the Musician’s Benevolent Fund, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund. Harriet works regularly with many orchestras including the Philharmonia, the Orchestra of the Swan and the Northern Sinfonia and her chamber music duo The Swan Duo reached the final of the 2007 ROSL Ensemble Prize. Harriet lives in London and invests a lot of time in composing and arranging for various ensembles, usually with the harp as a central component. ANGHARAD WYN JONES Angharad Wyn Jones was born in Caernarfon, North Wales and started to play the harp at the age of seven. Her many prizes and awards include winning the Rennata Schffel-Stein Award, Solo Harp competition at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Urdd Eisteddfod and Texaco Young Musician of North Wales 1999 and 2000. She was also a semi-finalist of the Texaco Young Musician of the Year Wales and a prize winner at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. During the past few years she has performed with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Phillharmonic Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Wales and Cyprus State Orchestra. She has worked under the batons of Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis, Howard Goodall and David Arnold to name a few. Angharad won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music, London with Skaila Kanga, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music Degree with honours. Angharad specialises in jazz harp performance and has studied with Hugh Webb and Park Stickney. |
||
 |
 |
Copyright © 2004-2010 Andover Music Club |
