Rachel Masters

In 2024, Rachel Masters retired from the London Philhamonic Orchestra, where she was the Principal Harp for 35 years, a position which took her all over the globe, performing with leading conductors and soloists in world class venues.

Starting with the piano at the age of six, she took up the harp a few years later, studying with Rosemary Chandler and Sidonie Goossens. She was a junior student at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, before receiving a scholarship to study with Marisa Robles at the Royal College of Music.

During her early career, Rachel performed as a soloist and chamber musician, making her debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1982. She also recorded an extensive range of harp repertoire by Alwyn, Bernstein, Britten, Debussy, Ginastera, Gliere, Mozart, Panufnik and Ravel.

Gradually, she became more established in the orchestral field and was appointed to the LPO in 1989, and throughout her tenure, she enjoyed teaching and mentoring many of today’s younger professional harpists, sharing her detailed knowledge of solo repertoire as well as the great symphonic and operatic works which she has performed, broadcast and recorded over the decades.

Mared Emyr Pugh-Evans

Mared Emyr Pugh-Evans is an international prize-winning harpist from Borth, in mid-west Wales. She gained her MA (Performance) degree from the Royal Academy of Music in 2022, where she studied under Karen Vaughan. She also achieved her LRAM whilst studying for her final year and received a DipRAM certificate for her Final Performance. She graduated from RWCMD, Cardiff in 2020 with a First-Class (Honours) Bachelor of Music degree and also achieved her DipABRSM (Instrumental Teaching) certificate and was awarded the 2020 RWCMD Royal Welch Fusiliers Award and the Florence Mary Proctor Scholarship. In April 2025 she was inducted as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Mared is honoured to have been appointed Harpist to His Majesty The King in the Summer of 2024, with her first official engagement happening a few weeks later celebrating 25 years of Y Senedd in Cardiff. During her first year in this prestigious role she performed at numerous state banquets, in Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and was also an invited guest at the Community Music Makers Reception at Windsor Castle. She has performed on S4C, Radio 4, Radio 3 and BBC One.

A regular recitalist on both the national and international stage, Mared has won numerous awards for her playing including 6th Place HarpMasters Prize at the USA International Harp Competition, Bloomington in 2022 and Winner of the 2020 Sir Ian Stoutzker £10k Prize for the most outstanding musician at RWCMD.

After graduating from RAM, she was selected as an Open Academy Fellow, the Academy’s Community and Participation department, where her passion for this field of work blossomed. She is proud to not only be a Live Music Now musician but also a musician for Wigmore Hall’s community and participation department: Music for Life.

She has appeared as guest soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra under the baton of composer Patrick Hawes for a performance of his Highgrove Suite to a sell-out audience at Norwich Cathedral.