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4 GIRLS / 4 HARPS (The Barkham
Harp Quartet)
4 Girls/4 Harps (The Barkham Harp Quartet) was formed in 2000 and
is made up of four award-winning harpists, three of whom studied
with Daphne Boden at the Royal College of Music. They have given
concerts at many venues and festivals including the Two Moors, Windsor,
Bromsgrove and Three Choirs Festivals and were chosen for the Blackheath
Halls Young Artist's Series 2003-4. Their first CD, funded by the
Tillett Trust, was released at the end of 2002.
The Quartet's performances are as accessible as they are innovative
and dynamic. Eleanor, Harriet, Keziah and Angharad all enjoy talking
to the audience about the harp and their music, and concert programmes
usually include one solo item from each member to showcase everyone
individually.
Composers today are discovering the enormous musical excitement
and variety the harp is capable of, and with four harps the scope
is wider still. The Quartet strongly supports new music and is continually
developing their eclectic repertoire. So far, they have commissioned
and premiered four dramatically contrasting works: Edward Watson's
A Celtic Springtime (sponsored by the Vaughan Williams Trust); The
Island by Eleanor Turner; Sun, Moon and Stars by Harriet Adie and
Edward Longstaff's Saraswati.
Committed to raising awareness of the harp in the community, the
four frequently play in diverse situations from music therapy projects
and special needs schools to glamorous cruise ships and even fields!
Their harps can also be spotted in hospitals, schools and prisons,
performing in outreach initiatives such as the Live Music Now! scheme
and the London Philharmonic Orchestra Playerlink project. They are
also well-travelled outside the UK and have played in France, Switzerland,
Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Norway and New York.
ELEANOR TURNER
Eleanor Turner has recently won several prestigious awards for soloists,
including the Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists
2005 from 'Making Music', and the Royal Over-Seas League Annual
Music Competition Award for Strings and Marisa Robles Harp Prize
2002.
Born in 1982, Eleanor started learning the harp at the age of five.
She attended the Royal College of Music Junior Department from the
age of 11 to 17, studying harp with Daphne Boden and composition
with Dr. Peter Fribbins. She won the Freida Dinn and Ida Mabbett
Award for Strings in 2000, and the Gordon Turner Prize for all instrumentalists
in 1999. She won the London Harp Competition in 1998.
Eleanor made her London debut at the age of 15 as a result of winning
the Audi Junior Musician. She performed the Dittersdorf Concerto
with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, conducted by Daniel
Harding, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Eleanor has also appeared
as concerto soloist with English Baroque Ensemble, London Charity
Orchestra, Stamford Chamber Orchestra, Bristol Baroque and 'Proteus'
of Leicester, and her playing has been broadcast live on Classic
Fm, Radio 3 and regional BBC radio.
KEZIAH THOMAS
Keziah Thomas graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2002,
where she studied the harp as a Scholar with Daphne Boden. During
this time she was awarded a Jellinek Award, a UKHA harp bursary
and from the RCM, the Douglas Whittaker Prize, the Jack Morrison
Harp Prize and the Marie Goosens Orchestral Harp Prize.
A career as a professional harpist has always been Keziah's lifelong
ambition and after starting lessons at the age of ten she went on
to gain an ARCM diploma and made solo debuts at the Wigmore Hall
and the Royal Albert Hall while still at school.
Since graduating, Keziah has achieved a busy and varied career
as a solo and chamber musician. As winner of the 2003 London Harp
Competition, she has recently been invited to give recitals for
the Worshipful Company of Musicians and the Royal Welsh College
of Music. Keziah was a string finalist in the 2003 YCAT auditions
and the ROSL competition and was selected to perform at the 9th
World Harp Congress in Dublin in 2005.
Keziah Thomas and Eleanor Turner also play together as Double Action
Harp Duo. Winners of the Park Lane Group Young Artists Series 2005,
the duo performed three world premieres in a critically acclaimed
Purcell Room recital. These 'assured interpreters' (The Times) also
won third prize in the 5th International Competition for Chamber
Music with Harp in Arles, France.
HARRIET ADIE
Harriet Adie read Music at Oxford, where she was holder of the Richard
Lewis Nettleship Instrumental Exhibition. She continued postgraduate
studies at Trinity College of Music with Imogen Barford, generously
supported by a Countess of Munster Scholarship, a Musicians Benevolent
Fund Music Education Award and a Martin Musical Fund Scholarship.
Prior to this she studied with Daphne Boden at the Junior Department
of the Royal College of Music, where she was awarded the Ruby White
Prize. Harriet performed at the Linbury Theatre Studio, Covent Garden
with the Unicorn Theatre Project, in association with the Philharmonia
Orchestra, for their production of the Opera Clockwork, and has
been selected for the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme.
ANGHARAD WYN JONES
Angharad was born in Caernarfon, North Wales and started to play
the harp when she was about seven. She has won many prizes with
the harp including winning the Solo Harp competition at the National
Eisteddfod of Wales, Urdd Eisteddfod and Texaco Young Musician of
North Wales 1999 and 2000. She was also a semi - finalist of the
Texaco Young Musician of the Year Wales and a prize winner at the
Llangollen International Eisteddfod.
During the last few years she has performed solo recitals, with
orchestras such as The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony
Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, Cyprus State Orchestra
and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra with whom she
appeared with Sir Elton John on his tour of the UK and North America.
She has played for HRH the Prince of Wales and also the Duchess
of Gloucester. She appeared in concert with Katherine Jenkins and
Darius Danesh and also at the BBC Proms under the direction of Sir
Colin Davis.
Angharad won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music,
London with Skaila Kanga, where she graduated with a Bachelor of
Music Degree with honours.
PROGRAMME
LA REJOUISSANCE (from Music for the Royal Fireworks)
TWO HORNPIPES (from Water Music) - - - GEORGE F. HANDEL (1685-1759)
(Transcribed by Eleanor Turner)
THREE PIECES FROM 'MA MERE L'OYE' (Mother Goose Suite) - - - MAURICE
RAVEL (1875-1937) (Transcribed by Harriet Aide)
Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant
Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodas
Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE HARP
RAMBLA! (2008) ELEANOR TURNER (b. 1982)
INTERVAL
SUN, MOON AND STARS HARRIET ADIE (b.1980)
A Middle Eastern sky (2004)
MALAGUEÑA ERNESTO LECUONO (1895-1963)
FOUR PIECES FROM 'LE CARNIVAL DES ANIMAUX' - - - CAMILLE SAIN-SAENS
(1835-1921) (Transcribed by Eleanor Turner and Harriet Adie)
Le Cygne
Volière
L'Elephant
Aquarium
SARASWATI (2001) EDWARD LONGSTAFF (b. 1965)
ENCORE
SUMMERTIME (from Porgy and Bess)
GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
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