Ailie Robertson is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s leading traditional musicians and Celtic harpists. A five-time National Mod Gold Medalist and a BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year finalist, Ailie also won first prize at the inaugural London Harp Competition, was judged best overall musician at the Edinburgh Competition Festival and won the St Albans New Roots award. Her debut solo album ‘First things first' won the 'Live Ireland' award for 'Best Instrumental Cut of the Year’. She has performed and taught all over the world, released 3 solo Celtic Harp CDs and published 7 volumes of harp sheet music. She gives performances, teaches private lessons, and has an online harp school. "Innovative, assured and beautiful...her harp exerts an undeniable and inexorable tug at the heart strings" - Scotland on Sunday "A player of Ailie's class has the ability to tear your heart out" - Maverick

With interests encompassing period performance to the newest music, Alex freelances with major ensembles throughout the United Kingdom. These include the Royal Opera House, the BBC Symphony, BBC Concert, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, English Touring Opera, Brighton Philharmonic, Chroma and (on the Erard harp) he appears with groups including the Gabrieli Consort and the Academy of Ancient Music. Alex is noted for his affinity with French music at the turn of the last century and for his work on original instruments of the period. He has conducted extensive research into the music and players of the time, delving into rich and often hidden histories. In this vein, and using a French Erard harp built in 1902, Alexander has given lecture-recitals to great acclaim in the UK, Europe and the USA. In 2022, Alexander recorded ‘Fresque Marine’, a disc of rare French works for the harp, part of a new series for the Willowhayne label. Alex studied with Gabriella Dall’Olio and Frances Kelly and was a scholarship student of Imogen Barford at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He graduated with distinction and was subsequently honoured with a Guildhall Artists’ fellowship. He is a visiting guest tutor at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Away from the harp, he is privileged to be working with Camac Harps in their artist relations departments. He enjoys reading, journalling, walking, cooking (and eating!)

Welsh harpist Amanda Whiting, started her classical studies at the age of 6. With a BMus and LRSM in Classical harp, she then went on to obtain her Masters in Jazz. Amanda currently teaches Jazz harp at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. As a composer she has numerous pieces on the Trinity Music College and ABRSM exam syllabuses, as well as having a prestigious Harp Column Studio. With 8 albums to her name, she is currently signed to First Word Records, London. In 2024/5 she headlined at Hootenanny, Jazz Café, Jazz Middelheim and the iconic Ronnie Scott’s. She has toured extensively with her own band (Aidan Thorne on bass and Jon Reynolds on drums), as well as with Matthew Halsall, Greg Foat, Rebecca Vasmant, DJ Yoda and Chip Wickham. Along the way, there’s been a nomination for 'Instrumentalist of the Year'from Jazz FM and she’s garnered the support of DJs such as Radio 2’s Jamie Cullum and BBC 6 Music’s Cerys Matthews.A virtuosic fusion of jazz,classical and hip hop, at times groove based, at times cinematic. Whiting's music transports the listener in thoroughly unexpected ways. “Extraordinary. An astonishing musical mind” Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music “A ethereal beat laden thing of beauty” Tony Minvielle, Jazz FM “Whiting is a superb homegrown example. ..her playing cinematic, lyrical and lissome by turns…” Jim Irvin,Mojo Magazine “Just stunning ” Deb Grant and Tom Ravenscroft BBC 6 Music “Highly Recommended “Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2 “Superb” Laurent Garnier, PBB Radio “Doing it Right! “Huey Morgan, BBC radio 6 “A cracking album” Robbie Vincent, Jazz FM "There is alot to love here " Nick Roseblade Clash Magazine

Amy Turk is a multi-genre harpist, arranger, composer and session artist from the UK. With special interests in percussion, video game music, film music and popular music of all styles, Amy has created a unique career path through her presence online, pioneering compositions and arrangements for solo harp and ensembles. Amy's work goes out first to her generous supporters on Patreon, before making its way to Spotify, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Her debut EP, "Syzygy," featuring three songs in her signature percussive style, is out now.

Ben Creighton Griffiths is a touring Jazz and Classical musician based in South Wales, UK. As an Orchestral Musician Ben is the Principal Harp of Orchestra De Cymru and the former Orchestra West. He made his International debut at the 2004 1er Concours International de Harpe in Nantes, France where, aged 7, he came second in the Under 18 division. In 2006 he won the Under 13 Division of the Wales International Harp Festival before going on to win the 2008 Junior Lily Laskine competition in Paris, winning a concert harp in the process. Other competitions include runner up in the 2009 Texaco Young Musician of Wales, second place in the Elias Parish Alvars Competition 2008, and multiple 1st prizes throughout age categories at the Urdd Eisteddfod of Wales. Whilst continuing his classical work, Ben is now in increasing demand for his jazz performances, working as both a soloist and with bands, singers, and other artists. His jazz repertoire covers all genres, including Swing, Latin, Funk, Electronic and Fusion, Gypsy, and more. He works as both an acoustic artist and also makes extensive use of electronics. He has also been teaching a series of very successful 'Introduction to Improvisation' workshops as both one off events and at Harp Festivals worldwide, aiming to encourage harpists of all ages and abilities into the world of jazz.

Bill Taylor is a specialist in the performance of ancient harp music from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and is one of very few players investigating these repertoires on lyres, psalteries, medieval gut-strung harps, wire-strung clarsachs and Renaissance harps with buzzing bray pins. He is one of the foremost interpreters of music in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, containing the earliest harp music from Europe, and he has made several recordings of this repertoire using historical harps. Bill performs and teaches in the Highlands and works with Ardival Harps in Strathpeffer. He performs and records as a soloist and with several ensembles, including Canty, Graindelavoix, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, Quadrivium and Sinfonye. As a teacher he is much in demand, and is frequently invited to lead workshops in the UK, Europe and the USA, including regular appearances at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. www.billtaylor.eu Bill Taylor will play a programme of late-medieval pieces from the Robert ap Huw manuscript, which contains not only the earliest harp music from Wales, but also from anywhere in Europe. The pieces were composed by players in North Wales in the 14th and 15th centuries, and survive in a unique tablature copied in the early 17th century by Robert ap Huw. Bill will play them on two different historical harps: a gut-strung medieval lap harp with 21 strings and a floor-standing harp with 29 strings, fitted with buzzing bray pins. Bill will lead a 2-part workshop playing a piece in tablature from the Robert ap Huw manuscript. Kaniad Suwsana / The Song of Suwsana, is one of three pieces in the collection having a woman's name in the title. The piece is unfinished, and it is relatively short, taking less than 5 minutes to perform. However, it is very beautiful, and it is a good piece to serve as an introduction to reading the tablature. We will learn how the tablature is structured, and how the different figures -- gestures similar to Highland piping graces -- are executed, using specific damping techniques. The music was originally played on gut-strung harps with fingernails. If you're able to grow your nails even 2mm long, that will help you appreciate the techniques; otherwise, finger-pad players are very welcome. The workshop is open to all players, on all harps, and at all levels except pure beginner.

Catrin Finch, from Llanon on the west coast of Wales, is the most gifted classical harp virtuoso of her generation, grounded in prodigious early achievements and intense classical training, and serving as Royal Harpist to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales in her early twenties. Catrin has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras; she has also achieved chart success with her number 1 rendition of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and has recorded for the world’s leading classical labels. Catrin’s boundless curiosity and adventurous spirit has led her into a parallel universe of musical success, most notably through her collaboration with kora virtuoso Seckou Keita with whom she won Best Group at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2019. In her classical career, Catrin Finch has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the English Chamber Orchestra. She has graced the stages of A-list classical music festivals, including Salzburg, Edinburgh, Spoleto and MDR Musiksommer in Leipzig and toured throughout Europe, north and south America and the Middle East. Catrin has performed extensively throughout the USA, South America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Europe, both as a soloist, and appearing with many of the world’s top orchestras, and has recorded for many of the major international recording companies, including Universal Records, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Sony Classical, both solo and with notable artists such as Bryn Terfel, Sir James Galway and Julian Lloyd-Webber. A versatile, fearless and ground-breaking artist, Catrin continues to explore and push the boundaries of her art with award-winning international collaborations with artists such as kora maestros Seckou Keita (Senegal) and Toumani Diabaté (Mali), Colombian joropo cowboy virtuosos Cimarron, and most recently Ireland's renowned classical violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain. Catrin is currently Head of Harp at The Royal Academy of Music, London.

Corrina Hewat, harper and singer, is celebrating 30 years in professional music. Rooted in traditional Scottish tunes and songs, she grew up in the Highlands, surrounded by music, art and stories in an expansive landscape which shaped her musical character: introvert, dark and slightly adrift. Corrina taught at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for ten years before moving into co-directing the children’s theatre company DragonSong Productions until 2024. She is also one of the collectors of the women-composer trad tune book on Fabermusic “Folk Tunes from the Women”. Co-founder of The Unusual Suspects Big Band and Bachue with David Milligan and the trio of trios: Grace, Hewat, Polwart; Shine; Chantan, she has worked with the very best of folk and has a gentle and rare way of coaxing the very best out of you, whether it be a harp or voice.

With the harp as her trusted companion, Dara blends all the musical styles she’s picked up along the way into something completely her own. She started out playing Irish trad and now fronts a four-piece indie-pop band, giving the harp a fresh, modern twist. From soulful solo sets with her loop pedal to high-energy shows that mix flamenco, blues, and drum'n'bass, Dara loves pushing the limits of what the harp can do - and keeping her audience hooked every step of the way.

Eleanor is a Glasgow-based harpist and singer. Drawing on her background in classical, traditional and jazz music, she enjoys exploring the versatility of the harp in cross-genre and collaborative settings. Her experience spans a wide range of performance contexts, from international festival stages to chamber music settings. She has performed with members of the Silkroad Ensemble in Boston, MA, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as being a member of award-winning Irish indie-folk band Ranagri. Eleanor is both a Stoller Hall Emerging Artist and Sound Roots Artist, and has recently worked with composer and harpist Maeve Gilchrist to commission a new work for clàrsach, guzheng, and percussion, to be premièred at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival in 2026. Alongside her duo partner, Irish bodhrán player and percussionist Gregor Black, she was awarded EP of the Year 2024 by Fatea Magazine, and claimed the Danny Kyle Award at Celtic Connections 2024 in Glasgow. Eleanor holds degrees from the University of York and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has delivered workshops for RCS, the Clarsach Society and the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. A keen advocate for community and outreach work, she delivers interactive performances through Live Music Now Scotland, and her compositions have been featured on the ABRSM harp syllabus.

Eleanor Turner is an international harpist whose artistic spirit is ignited by chamber music, cross genre projects and her solo performances involving improvisation, electronics and movement. Eleanor’s accolades include First Prize in the European Harp Competition in 2007, awards from PRS Foundation and a Wingwte Scholarship. A passionate exponent of contemporary music, Eleanor was proud to be awarded Second Prize at the Gaudeamus Interpreters Contest in Amsterdam in 2011. Eleanor believes that music is the most powerful language in the universe and seeks to explore new tangents that celebrate the beauty and infinite power of the harp. Her Tesselations concert for How To Harp will showcase her virtuosity and unique relationship with our beloved instrument.

Eric Booth is a founding leader of the global field of teaching artistry, a wide and fast-evolving field that combines artistry with pedagogical creativity. For over forty-five years, Eric has guided teaching artists and arts organizations in what he calls “the ancient, underutilized power” of activating artistry in individuals and communities to simultaneously create beauty, engagement, and progressive social change. His eight published books include Making Change: Teaching Artists and Their Role in Shaping a Better World (2022); Tending the Perennials: The Art and Spirit of a Personal Religion (2019); The Teaching Artist’s Bible: Becoming a Virtuoso Educator (2009); and The Everyday Work of Art: Awakening the Extraordinary in Your Daily Life (2001), a bestseller which won several awards and was a Book Club of the Month Selection. His work in building the field of teaching artistry, and developing its connections with creativity and community, has taken many forms.

Esther Swift explores ritual, connection, isolation, and the natural world in her performance with pedal harp and voice. A prolific, boldly innovative harpist, composer and singer, Esther works across genres as diverse as classical chamber music and free improvisation, and writes for ensembles large and small. Having studied at Edinburgh’s St Mary’s Music School and the Royal Northern College of Music, as well as with harp pioneer Catriona McKay, she has received numerous prestigious commissions and featured in many international collaborations. She has travelled to Vietnam, New Zealand, Malaysia, Mongolia, and beyond with her music, and shared international, music lead collaborations with musicians and other artists around the world. She has recently been commissioned by Celtic Connections, Chamber Music Scotland, Manchester Jazz festival and The Edwin Morgan Trust and performed internationally with her band Emergence Ensemble. Esther's debut solo studio album, Expectations of a Lifetime, was released in June 2024.

Gillian is a Scottish harper, composer and singer based in Glasgow, Scotland. She has been a key player in the Scottish Harp scene for many years as part of The Duplets, and in her own right as a tutor and examiner, but she has also accrued a loyal fanbase on the indie scene through her work with Agnes Obel, Pictish Trail and Adam Ross among others. Her career has taken her all over the world and she is proud to have inspired many people to say “I never knew the harp could do that”. 2024 will see the release of “Together With Yourself at Sea Level”, her frst fully selfcomposed solo album. This project has been a collaboration with producer C DuncanMercury Award nominee and multiple Scottish Album Of The Year Award nominated composer, blending his own chamber pop sensibilities with Gillian’s traditional upbringing. The album has been recorded on a very rare and beautiful 210 year old Erard Grecian pedal harp housed in an art school in Arbroath, where most of the album was recorded. This connection with such an old and precious instrument is key to themes of the project as the music is an exploration of recovery, time, health and how art, nature and music carry us through when we let them.

Gwen Màiri is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where she studied pedal harp with Karen Vaughan (co-principal harp, LSO and Professor of Harp, RAM) and the traditional Scottish clàrsach with Karen Marshalsay. Recent orchestral work has included performances with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Northern Ballet and the Novello Orchestra (for Disney’s UK tours of The Muppets Christmas Carol). She is also part of the harp and saxophone duo, BabaYaga. With the clàrsach, Gwen has become very busy in the world of traditional music, grounding her style in her Scottish and Welsh roots. This has led to performances at Celtic Connections, Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Hay Festival, Edinburgh International Harp Festival, the National Eisteddfod, Musika Bizian in the Basque Country and in many other exciting places. Her playing can be heard on the albums of Gwilym Bowen Rhys (O Groth y Ddaear, 2016 and Arenig, 2019) and she has released two of her own albums (Mentro, 2019 and Douze Noëls, 2021). The track Teifi, from Mentro, was shortlisted for Best Instrumental Track in the Wales Folk Awards 2023. An enthusiastic educator, Gwen has been a harp instructor for RCS Junior Department, Glasgow City Council (mainly at Sgoil Ghlàidhlig Ghlaschu), the University of Edinburgh, Gwerin Gwallgo (Trac Cymru’s youth folk music course), Edinburgh International Harp Festival, Tamnak Prathom Harp Centre (Bangkok) and Avanc (National Youth Folk Ensemble of Wales) and has many private pupils in person and online. She has published three books of Scottish and Welsh traditional music through Alaw Publishing and her arrangements have been included in syllabuses for Trinity College London, the Royal National Mòd and RCS graded exams. Douze Noëls is also available as a PDF online through her website. 2023 saw the inclusion of one of her compositions in the Faber Music publication Folk Tunes from the Women.

Welsh harpist Gwenllian Llŷr is known for her charismatic and engaging performances. With prizes too numerous to list, including from the USA International Harp Competition and the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition, Gwenllian is becoming increasingly in demand as a solo performer. Her career has already taken her across the globe to perform in prestigious venues alongside renowned artists such as jazz legend Al Jarreau, pianist Imogen Cooper, and international opera singer Bryn Terfel. Following the successful release of her debut solo album, ‘Dusk to Dawn’, for which her playing was hailed as “magnificent” and “powerful”, Gwenllian toured the UK both in concert venues and in the community as part of her work for the charity Live Music Now. As many a harpist before her, Gwenllian became inspired - largely by her students - to expand the harp’s repertoire with her own compositions. Some of her pieces are regularly featured on the concert circuit and have been heard on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Cymru, as well as being featured on exam syllabuses for Trinity and ABRSM. Gwenllian’s latest work, her own take on that quintessential Welsh hymn, Calon Lan, featured on her CD with Ty Cerdd, ‘Soliloquies for harp’. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, The Juilliard School and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Gwenllian is enjoying a busy and varied freelance career. Alongside several solo recitals, her upcoming year will feature a tour with the other half of Aliara Duo, flautist Sirius Chau, both within the UK as well as at the World Harp Congress in Toronto.

Karen Peterson is a harp coach, Certified Music Practitioner, and author of books on playing modal music and the double-strung harp. Karen trained as a pedal harpist with no idea what she wanted to do with the harp. But she knew what she did NOT want: no music degree (too hard), no gigs (too complicated), no brides (too touchy). She discovered lever harps at the New Jersey Somerset Folk Harp Festival in 2002 and became intrigued by the therapeutic harp programs. Karen earned her certification through the Music for Healing and Transition Program and has been playing in healthcare facilities since 2010. Karen now specializes in the double-strung harp, which she uses to create soothing, restorative, or delightful musical experiences for patients and staff, especially with her arrangements of well-loved hits from the 1950s through today. As a harp coach, she helps adult learners have more fun in their practice and truly enjoy the harp.

Lauren Scott is an inspiring musician; whilst continuing her decades of work freelancing with the major UK orchestras, she pushes musical boundaries on multiple projects as harpist with various chamber groups as well as creating numerous collaborative projects. Lauren studied harp at Trinity College of Music and her harp playing has led her to performing in venues across the UK from the Royal Albert Hall to West End shows to commercial recordings to live broadcasts on radio and TV. In the last six years she has composed, arranged and published a highly imaginative and distinctive number of works. She has published three volumes of music for lever harp, her music has received praise from harpists and harp societies worldwide and is used as set pieces on Trinity and AMEB grade syllabuses. Her unique and dynamic style of composing was recently honoured with a PRS Foundation Women Make Music grant & her music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Scala Radio and included on BBC Introducing & Apple Music playlists. In 2020 her debut solo CD, Beyond the Horizon was released on the Avie Records label to critical acclaim. In 2021 she was a recipient of a 'Developing Your Creative Practice' award from Arts Council England and was composer-in-residence with Harps North West. Her latest album, Sea of Stars also released on the Avie Records label, was selected as Album of the Week on Scala Radio (her second album to receive this accolade) and features music by J.S. Bach, M. Ravel, Grace-Evangeline Mason, Monika Stadler, Rudiger Opperman as well as her own arrangements and compositions. For more information please visit - www.lauren-scott-harp.co.uk

Marianne Gubri is a harpist, music therapist, researcher, and educator with over twenty years of international experience in music, music therapy, and interdisciplinary research. She holds a Diploma in Early Harp (Tours, France) and a Diploma in Celtic Harp (Lannion, Brittany) and a Master’s degree in Musicology. She is also a Certified Harp Therapy Practitioner (IHTP, USA) and has specialized in Vibroacoustic Harp Therapy and Music Imagery. As a performer, she has played in over 20 countries at prestigious venues with her own musical projects and compositions. She has published more than 10 albums and scores of her own compositions. She is an expert in therapeutic music and sound healing, having worked with hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and wellness retreats across Europe. She regularly teaches and lectures at international institutions, including conservatories, universities, and major harp festivals. Marianne is the founder of the Italian and French branches of the International Harp Therapy Program, of the Arpeggi Harp School in Bologna and has published research in journals on therapeutic music. She has also authored books on harp music and its connections to philosophy and healing.

“At the end of the day, I’m a storyteller. It simply happens that some words are notes.” Despite her Scottish nickname, Morgan is a Breton harper, singer and composer. Born in the forest of Brocéliande, she grew up surrounded by the Arthurian legends and Breton culture, which soon developed into an interest for everything celtic, especially celtic music. She learned the celtic harp with Carol da Silva and Myrdhin and turned pro at 21 years old with her first band, named Les Ménestrels des Terres de Lune (The Moonlands’ Minstrels), where she was composer, lead singer and harper. She traveled all over Ireland and Scotland and still does so on a regular basis to have fun in sessions and meet fellow musicians. That’s how she actually learned to speak English. She also worked on a solo career and has been in the core team of Dinan’s Rencontres de harpes for 12 years, and worked as a harp teacher for 10 years before quitting due to too many concerts. Since 2017, she plays mostly solo as the Minstrels are no more, yet her composing style remains a wild, fairy-like music filled with both poetry and energy. She also plays her practice routine every morning on Twitch. In July 2023, she released “Sauvage”, the french version of “Wild”, and it instantly was a best-seller for french harps students who enjoyed the fun-and-fluffy way to learn and the tricks and tips all over the place to arrange, compose and sing-along with their harps. The English version, “Wild”, followed by November 2023. Morgan’s 5th album will be released in April 2024. She also is a Sci-fi and Fantasy writer. She won several french awards and is considered a reference in French Fantasy. Nowadays, she divides her time between her writing career and her music career, giving concerts all over Europe and book signing all over France and Belgium.

Nadia Birkenstock is a harpist, singer and composer based in Germany and in France. She started her vocal studies on a scholarship in the USA and studied voice with a degree in classical voice at the Music conservatory of Düsseldorf in Germany. During her classical studies, she launched her first harp and voice solo concert programs, with a repertoire of both elaborate arrangements of traditional music and her own compositions. She has been performing and teaching at festivals in Europe and the USA and frequently plays for the Irish honorary consulate in Germany. She released numerous albums with labels in Germany and France. Her award-winning recordings have been licensed for international films, documentaries, and music productions of various genres. Nadia’s YouTube channel and Spotify profile is a popular resource of original harp compositions and creative arrangements for performers, teachers and students around the globe.

Nicole Müller is a passionate harp virtuoso with an extraordinary sensitivity to the subtlest nuances of tone, captivating rhythms, and musical expression. She completed her classical studies at the Würzburg University of Music with Gisele Herbet, studied privately with jazz and electric harpist Deborah Henson-Conant for a time, and continues her musical development through numerous intensive coachings in jazz and songwriting. In her solo concerts, she enthralls her audiences with a fusion of classical music, jazz, her own arrangements/songs, and flamenco rhythms. As a soloist and chamber musician, she performs throughout Germany and is a regular guest soloist with Germany's major opera houses and symphony orchestras (Hanover State Opera, Bremen Theatre, Dortmund Opera, SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden/Freiburg, among others). In addition, since 2018 Nicole Müller has run an online harp school, training amateur and professional harpists throughout Europe in improvisation, jazz, and creative playing. She has published harp books featuring her own compositions, as well as the well-received book “The Smart Way To Improvisation”. As a creative and business coach, Nicole also supports musicians in developing a wide range of artistic and entrepreneurial projects. Her classical album "Rêves et Danses" was released in 2013 on Acoustic Music Records, and her jazz Christmas album "In A Different Light" was released in 2016. Her latest album, "We Create Magic," features exclusively her own songs for the first time.

Performance psychologist Noa Kageyama is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music. A conservatory-trained violinist with degrees from Oberlin and Juilliard before completing a Ph.D. in psychology at Indiana University, Noa now specializes in working with performing artists, teaching them how to utilize sport psychology principles and more consistently perform up to their full abilities under pressure. He has conducted workshops for institutions ranging from Northwestern University, New England Conservatory, Peabody, Eastman, Curtis, McGill University, and the U.S. Armed Forces School of Music, to programs such as the Starling-Delay Symposium, The Perlman Music Program, and the National Orchestral Institute, and for organizations like the Music Teachers’ National Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Sphinx Organization, the Performing Arts Medicine Association, and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Noa’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, CNN, Slate, TED-Ed, Musical America, Strings Magazine, Strad, and Lifehacker. He has taught over 8000 musicians, educators, and learners through his online courses, and authors The Bulletproof Musician - a performance psychology blog and podcast which reaches over 45,000 subscribers every week.

BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2026, Rachel Groves is curious about the lever harp as a contemporary and collaborative voice within Scottish folk tradition. Growing up in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, she moved to Glasgow last year, where she enjoys playing in the city's vibrant session scene. She is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, drawing inspiration from jazz and global folk traditions to explore the textural and rhythmic possibilities of the instrument. Following on from being awarded the BBC Young Trad title at Celtic Connections this year, Rachel will present a new set of original and traditional music at several festivals this summer, alongside musicians and friends from Glasgow's music scene.

Samantha Ballard is a professional harpist, recording artist, and arranger based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Since completing her bachelor of music degree from the University of British Columbia in 2015, Samantha enjoys a varied and exciting career. She has performed across Canada as well as in Europe and South America, participates in a wide variety of recording projects from her home studio, develops digital harp educational resources, and maintains a vibrant teaching studio of harp students. Samantha's chief passion is the music of video games; since 2012 she has published her harp arrangements of video game music and other music from pop culture to YouTube where she has garnered an audience of over 50,000 subscribers and more than 8 million views. She has also independently released 2 full length albums, On Christmas Night and Guiding Light: An Octopath Traveler Harp Collection. Samantha is currently in the process of arranging and recording her third full length album.

Savourna Stevenson is a composer whose music strongly reflects her Scottish roots, yet it also reveals her uniquely eclectic and innovative urge to break through stylistic barriers between classical, folk, world music and jazz. The diversity of commission, organisations from the BBC to Iona Abbey, and her equally diverse audiences, from concert hall patrons to viewers of HBO, are a measure of the breadth and scope of her output. Savourna’s ever expanding catalogue includes a large body of work for harp, notably her Harp Quintet (CD Touch Me Like The Sun) acclaimed for its use on American TV shows ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Ugly Betty’ and her Concerto for Pedal Harp premiered to enthusiastic audiences throughout Scotland in June 2012 by international harp soloist Catrin Finch with the Scottish Ensemble. Savourna Stevenson’s three large scale children’s orchestral works with narrative, Misterstourworm and the Kelpie’s Gift, Hansel and Gretel and The Snow Queen, plus three orchestrated songs for the National Youth Choirs of Scotland signify her major contribution to music for children.

Sharlene Wallace lives in a normal Toronto house bursting with an abnormal number of harps. From that tightly strung fortress of song she launches campaigns across Canada, the US, Italy and France with music that listeners describe as Celtic, Classical, South American or contemporary, but it's really all just Shar. She placed first in international lever harp competitions in the USA and Brittany (you should have seen the victory parades - so many harps) and students and music lovers all over Canada have cherished her performances since the time when the CD was new. She’s played lever and pedal harp with orchestras and festivals everywhere, toured with Ron Korb (flutes), George Koller (bass), Joe Macerollo (accordion) and Susan Piltch (flute, piano). Lately she has been making music with pianist Eric Robertson and fiddle player Anne Lindsay in a trio called Iona Passage. For the record, though, she doesn't own a passage, just a lot of harps. Somehow, between all of that travelling and playing Sharlene found time to create nine recordings of her own music and arrangements. Trees.Listen, with co-composer Frank Horvat, was released in October 2024. It's a nine-piece suite for Celtic lever harp and electronics inspired by the ancient Celtic Ogham script and the book To Speak for the Trees by botanist, biochemist, biologist Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger. This project includes an album, sound installations, and a performance that premiered at the University of Guelph Arboretum in September 2024. One month later, she released Lilac Embers, an album of all Shar-music written for Celtic harp with electronics by Jean Martin. Sharlene has taught lever and pedal harp privately, in four universities and in workshops across North America, including over three decades for Island Mountain Arts in Wells, BC. She herself has a performance degree from the University of Toronto where she studied with harp oracle Judy Loman, who is 47 feet tall and 172 years old. Sharlene also is a graphic designer, photographer, part-time pollster and will defend accordion music to the very end.

Influenced by her love of fairy tales, Tolkien, and the world music section at her local library, Minnesota-based harpist Stephanie Claussen loves to perform Scottish tunes, Bach preludes, and anything that sounds medieval or French. A two-time winner at the Master level in the Minnesota Scottish Harp Competition, she later went on to win the title of 2018 US National Scottish Harp Champion. In 2021 she performed as one of four finalists in the North America Princess Margaret Celtic Harp Competition. She now splits her time between arranging, teaching and performing throughout the Midwest.

Originally from Minnesota, Sunita spent the past two decades living in Israel, teaching and performing with local musicians before moving to the UK. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and a passionate instructor Sunita is a frequent presenter at folk harp festivals and retreats across North America and Scotland. Her love of travel and adventure has inspired her to become a versatile performer and arranger. Working as a therapeutic harpist in a children’s hospital in Tel Aviv enhanced her lyrical and improvisational style. Sunita’s books of harp arrangements are played by harpists around the world. You can find Sunita on YouTube, Spotify, walking her dog by the sea learning to knit or helping her husband restore an old stone house on the most northerly isle in Shetland. She leads boutique harp tours in Scotland and retreats in Shetland and Tuscany.

As a child, Tamsin couldn't decide if she wanted to be a harpist, a trapeze artist or an expert on Japanese art. So she hedged her bets: six years of nagging persuaded her parents to let her have harp lessons; as a more rebellious eighteen-year-old she (politely) informed her parents she was taking up a year's place in a circus school before going to university to read Japanese. When performing and composing, Tamsin is now glad of her somewhat eclectic musical education: as a beginner harpist she learned to play medieval and traditional music by ear; as a broke student she learned on the job to play jazz in a wine bar; as an adult she went back to basics to improve her technique and sound, becoming a passionate advocate of the versatility of the lever harp. With a masters degree in composition, Tamsin is at home in many different sound worlds, and her work ranges from the atonal to the lyrical, from purely instrumental to synth- and electronics-based. She has released several albums of solo harp music, including transcriptions of Bach as well as an EP of self-penned songs for voice and guitar. She now divides her time between performing, teaching, composing, and designing weird and wonderful interactive soundscapes for museum installations and indie game designers. She has performed and taught in a variety of (mostly respectable) locations around the world.