Harp Competitions

This page is for Harp classes of grades 1-8 standard.  For more advanced harpists, see United Kingdom Harp Competition.


The North London Festival would like to thank the UKHA – United Kingdom Harp Association for its generous sponsorship of the harp competitions at the North London Festival from 2022.
The Festival is very grateful to Salvi Music London for providing harps for competitors to use in all the harp competitions

Adjudicators: Rachel Wick and Lucy Wakeford

Harp Classes 602 to 606 on Monday 6 May 2024 will precede the final of the United Kingdom Harp Competition. These are recital competitions  in which entrants play two contrasting pieces.

The harp competitions will be held in North Bank Rooms , Muswell Hill Methodist Church, Pages Lane, Muswell Hill, London N10 1PP.  Classes are open to lever and pedal harpists, but entrants for any of the harp competitions should be studying or resident in the United Kingdom or Ireland and must provide the adjudicator with a clean copy of the music for each work to be performed.

In the recital classes, where a grade is specified, the own choice repertoire is not limited to pieces from graded exam syllabi but should be of equivalent standard.

If an entrant has been a pupil of the Adjudicator in the year prior to the Festival or is well-known to the Adjudicator, they should contact the Section Head before entering.

Harpists are eligible to enter some string competitions and may be interested in performing their own compositions. See String and Composition sections.

Harp chamber ensemble competitions will this year be combined with string chamber music competitions. Non-classical harpists should look at the folk music classes, 514 and 515. Both these competitions can be found in the Chamber Music, Ensemble and Folk Music Section.

Full details are in the Harp Section Syllabus (link on the right or below).

Click on the links below for information on how to apply or to apply online. The first time that you use the entry system, you will need to register. 

The closing date for harp classes is Friday 5th April 2024

How to apply Apply online

Until 2021, CAMAC Harps sponsored the harp competitions of the North London Festival.

We had to cancel our harp 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! Click on the ‘Read More’ button for full results.

Read more

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