To be added to the festival mailing list, please either use the box in the footer of the webpage or email enquiriesnlf@outlook.com and let us know the areas of the festival that interest you.
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
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.
Camac Competition – Llywelyn Ifan Jones Winner of the 2020 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.
Llywelyn Ifan Jones Photo: Keith Morris
First Prize: Llywelyn Ifan Jones
Second Prize: Lise Vandersmissen
Third Prize: Clara Gatti Comini
Commendation: Clara Garde
UKHA Prize: Aimee Lam
G05, grades 7 – 8
First Prize: Matilda Whates
Second Prize: Hannah Runting
Third Prize: Arwen Withey-Harrison
G04, grades 5 – 6
First Prize: Meredith Hau
Second Prize: Heather Stark
Third Prize: David van Wingerden
G03, grades 3 – 4
First Prize: Dulce Tilley
Second Prize: Sophie Lam Sze Kei
Third Prize: Isabella Cook-Northcott
G02, grades 1-2
First Prize: Melanie Hau
Second Prize: Rosie Wang and Anya Dutta ex-aequo
Third Prize: Emilie Akpeki and Lily Ghaffari-Gandy ex-aequo
G06, Study 13 and under
First Prize: Erin Fflur Jardine
Second Prize: Meredith Hau
Third Prize: Emira Kangesan and Caitlin Liew ex-aequo
G07, Study 18 and under
First Prize: Sabrina Savenkova
Second Prize: Ella Gummow
The video below shows performances from the 2019 CAMAC Harp Competition, together with an interview with Helen Leitner, the then festival section head for harps.