Harps

We have a new system for entries. Please click on the link below for how to apply and for hints on creating an effective video performance. Entrants must also upload copies of the music. The first time that you use the new entry system, you will need to register.

The closing date for harp classes is Friday 16th April.

HARP CLASS DETAILS

Together with Speech and Drama, the NLF harp section has already blazed a trail through our online crisis solutions! At the start of the pandemic, the harp competitions were held online and attracted a huge number of entries from the length and breadth of the British Isles. You can enjoy the winning videos from last year below.

2021’s competitions will be online and have been streamlined to give as many young harpists as possible the chance to enter. Entrants must live in the UK or Ireland. It is not compulsory to present pieces from any particular grade exam syllabus although, of course, you are welcome to do so. Instead there will be three age categories, with the judging emphasis on overall performance and the suitability of the programme for the player.

Entrants will submit a video of their performance rather than performing live. Every entrant will receive a written adjudication sheet and a certificate of participation.

The UKHA Special Prize of £200 may be awarded to a harpist competing in any of the four harp classes.

We are delighted that our jurors will be Catrin Finch and Keziah Thomas.
The closing date is Friday 16th April.

CLASSES and ADJUDICATORS

Camac Harp Competition – Class 600 For young professional harpists living and/or studying in the United Kingdom and Ireland, aged 30 and under. For more information – Camac Harp Competition	Catrin Finch Keziah Thomas
Harp Solo – Class 601 Age 10 and under – own choice, one or two contrasting pieces – time limit 5 minutes.Please submit all pieces in one video. Pieces may be recorded separately (each in one take and unedited), then spliced together.	Catrin Finch Keziah Thomas
Harp Solo – Class 602 11 to 13 years – own choice, one or two contrasting pieces – time limit 10 minutes.Please submit all pieces in one video. Pieces may be recorded separately (each in one take and unedited), then spliced together.	Catrin Finch Keziah Thomas
Harp Solo – Class 603 14 to 17 years – own choice, one or two contrasting pieces – time limit 12 minutes.Please submit all pieces in one video. Pieces may be recorded separately (each in one take and unedited), then spliced together.	Catrin Finch Keziah Thomas

In each case, age is the age on 1st September 2020 so that all the entrants in a class are in the same school year.

If an entrant has been a pupil of the Adjudicator in the six-months prior to the Festival, they should contact the Composition Section Head before entering.

CAMAC COMPETITION 2020

We had to cancel our competitions in London in May 2020 because of the Covid-19 crisis – but offered a video competition instead. This is the first time we have run such a contest, and it went viral in more than one sense of the word! With over 170 entries across the board, we have been thrilled by the response. Huge thanks go to our jurors, Caryl Thomas and Sally Pryce, who have certainly been kept busy! The full results are available at the bottom of the page.

2020 COMPETITION WINNERS

Camac Competition – Llywelyn Ifan Jones
Winner of the Camac Competition at the North London Festival / Camac video competitions 2020, plays Visions in Twilight by Garrett Byrnes (*1971), and Fantasy op. 12 on Gounod’s ‘Faust’ by Albert Zabel (1834 – 1910).

Grades 7-8 Recital – Matilda Whates
Winner of the Class at the North London Festival / Camac video competitions 2020, plays the first movement of Handel’s Concerto op. 4 no. 6, and Nataliana by Deborah Henson-Conant.

Grades 5-6 Recital – Meredith Hau
Winner of the Grades 5-6 Recital Class at the North London Festival / Camac video competitions 2020, plays Danza de Luzma by Alfredo Rolando Ortiz, and Presto by J C Bach.

Grades 3-4 Recital – Dulce Tilley
Winner of the Grades 3-4 Recital Class at the North London Festival / Camac video competitions 2020, plays Prelude in C Major from JS Bach’s ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’ BWV 846, and Two Guitars by Linda Wood.

Grades 1-2 Recital – Melanie Hau
Winner of the Grades 1-2 Recital Class at the North London Festival / Camac video competitions 2020, plays ‘Mountain Stream’ and ‘Swing Time’, both by Skaila Kanga.

Section Administrator

Helen Leitner

Email: helen@camac-harps.com

Adjudicators

Catrin Finch

Internationally renowned harpist and composer Catrin Finch is one of the most accomplished harpists of her generation, and has been delighting audiences with her performances across the UK and worldwide, since the age of five.

She started her studies in Wales with Elinor Bennett, achieving the highest mark in the UK for her Grade 8 ABRSM exam at the tender age of nine, and then went on to study at The Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music with Skaila Kanga, graduating with the Queens Commendation for Excellence in 2002.

In 2000 she had the honour of reviving the ancient tradition of Royal Harpist to H.R.H, the Prince of Wales, a position she held until 2004, which was last held during Queen Victoria’s reign in 1873.

Since then, she 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.

She has recorded for most of the major international recording companies, including Universal Records, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Sony Classical.

Showing her versatility in different musical genres, in 2013 Catrin collaborated with Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita on an album entitled ‘Clychau Dibon’, which won the 2014 Critics Poll Album of the Year fRoots and Best Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Songlines magazine, and two BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Nominations. This successful collaboration continues to this day, with their second album, SOAR, releasing in April 2018 to huge critical acclaim and 5* reviews for their live shows in both The Guardian and The London Evening Standard, and winning fRoots Critics Poll Album of The Year 2018, Songlines Awards Best Fusion Album 2019, The Transglobal World Music Charts Best Transregional Album 2018 and ‘Best Group’ in the 2019 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. They have performed extensively throughout the UK, Europe, Australasia and North America, including at festivals such as WOMAD, Shambala, Sfinks, Hay Festival and Lorient Interceltique Festival.

Known for her work within the community and with the younger generation, Catrin is committed to promoting the harp and classical music through her now successful annual Academi Catrin Finch Academy Summer Harp School, an Annual Harp Fun Day and her ‘Classical Café’ evenings.

Keziah Thomas

Acclaimed by the New York Concert Review as ‘Stupendous…totally original and engaging’, at her Carnegie Hall debut recital, British harpist Keziah Thomas enjoys a reputation of a lively and engaging performer and educator. Her work in expanding the repertoire for concert harp has led to the creation of the first solo arrangement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and an album of commissioned and previously unrecorded contemporary works hailed as an ‘imaginatively programmed, winningly played recital’ by the BBC Music Magazine.

Keziah is principal harp with the Covent Garden Sinfonia and has appeared in major venues and festivals throughout the world including a solo tour of Japan for Aoyama Harps and performances at the 8th, 9th and 10th World Harp Congresses in Geneva, Dublin and Amsterdam.

The winner of the London Harp Competition, the Camac Harp Competition and the Contemporary Record Society Performing Artists Competition, Keziah Thomas holds an ARCM diploma and bachelors degree from the Royal College of Music and was taught by Danielle Perrett, Daphne Boden and Alison Nicholls.

Keziah is a creative educator and entrepreneur and is the founder of two popular harp programmes; Retreat to the Harp, a series of workshops and study weekends that bring together those who share her love of the harp and Little Harp Social, the group learning programme for adults. Keziah is assistant professor of harp at the Guildhall School and a resident musician for the charity Breathe.