by Gwydion Davies | 15 March, 2018
Rhiannon Mathias studied music at Surrey University (B. Mus), St. John’s College, Cambridge (M. Phil) and Reading University (PhD), and has experience as a public speaker and broadcaster. She is the author of a book about the music of Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams, lectures at Bangor University on twentieth-century women composers, and also directed the First International Conference on Women’s Work in Music last year at the University. Rhiannon performs in a flute and harp due with Elinor Bennett and is also the principal flute tutor at the Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias.
by Gwydion Davies | 15 March, 2018
Carol McClure, BA, MCM, Founder-Director of The Harp School, Inc. and ABRSM USA National Summer Harp Academy, harp professor (University of Louisville, Union University) and pedagogy specialist, solo, chamber and orchestral harpist, composer, arranger, editor and music publisher, studied with Marcel Grandjany and Mildred Dilling. A long-tenured Nashville recording session musician, Carol’s discography includes 20 solo CDs for US and UK labels. Author of The Angel’s Harp, Two by Two and Viva Voce curricula for developing musicians, she trains teachers and teaches students that include National Youth Orchestra USA harpists, national and international competition winners, scholarship recipients at prestigious conservatories, and students with special learning challenges.
by Gwydion Davies | 15 March, 2018
Clíona Doris has extensive experience as solo harpist and chamber musician and has performed throughout Ireland, Britain, Europe and the United States. Her broadcasts include performances on BBC Radio 3, Radio Ulster, RTÉ LyricFM, National Public Radio USA, ClassicFM TV, UTV, BBC Television and RTÉ Television and as soloist at the BBC Proms in the Park from Belfast broadcast as part of the BBC Last Night of the Proms. An active exponent of contemporary music, Clíona has premiered works by many composers. She has released two solo albums, and a recording of Handel’s Harp Concerto with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Clíona is a graduate of Queen’s University, Belfast and is Doctor of Music from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. She is now Head of the DIT Conservatory, Dublin.
by Gwydion Davies | 15 March, 2018
Rhian Samuel was educated in Britain and the United States. She completed a PhD at Washington University, St Louis, and thereafter taught Theory and Composition at the St Louis Conservatory of Music before returning to the UK in 1984, subsequently teaching at Reading University, City University, London, and Magdalen College Oxford. Her large-scale works include Elegy-Symphony (1981, St Louis SO); Tirluniau/Landscapes (2000, BBC Proms, BBCNOW), and Clytemnestra (BBC commission). She has written a number of works for solo harp, commissioned by Elinor Bennett and by the Royal Academy of Music, London. She co-edited the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. She received an Hon. Doctorate of Music from the University of Wales in 2016.
by Gwydion Davies | 15 March, 2018
Denise Kelly is Lecturer in Harp at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and DIT Conservatory, her harp teachers include Maria Korchinska, Sidonie Goossens (Guildhall School of Music, London) and Francette Bartholomée (Conservatoire Royal, Brussels). Denise has taught in both the Belfast and Cork Schools of Music, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, and has coached the Irish Youth Orchestras. A composer and arranger, Denise has worked as a chamber musician and accompanist. Denise has performed and recorded with The Ulster Orchestra, RTÉ Concert and National Symphony Orchestras of Ireland, both as soloist and as Principal Harpist.
