The Fifth Wales International Harp Festival, which will be held in Galeri Caernarfon from 5th – 11th April 2023, will be a golden opportunity for people to come together to be inspired by the music of the harp from many cultures. I look forward enormously to hearing performances in concerts, recitals and competitions and sharing the traditions of the harp around the world along with harpists from Wales, other Celtic countries, Colombia and Gambia.
Music can transcend geographical borders and military conflicts and can strengthen friendships with people in other lands. There will be a warm welcome awaiting all visitors to Caernarfon next Easter when the thrilling sounds of dozens of harps will resonate through the spaces of Galeri Arts Centre, after the silence and nervousness of the Covid pandemic.
As this will be my last Festival as Artistic Director, I have chosen music that has given me great pleasure in the past and reflects the path of my career from the folk music of my early days to the classics of the harp repertoire and new works.
Elinor Bennett.
Artistic Director, November 2022
The founder of an international harp festival will be signing off in style with a long goodbye. Renowned harpist Elinor Bennett will be centre stage at a special concert to launch the Wales International Harp Festival next spring. The launch concert will be taking...
A top music festival that’s going virtual for the first time in its history will be paying homage to globally renowned harpist Osian Ellis who died earlier this year. The 2020 Wales Harp Festival had to be cancelled at the last minute following the onset of the...
A message from Elinor Bennett, the Festival’s Artistic Director: The aim of this year’s Wales Harp Festival is to remember and pay homage to the great harpists whom we have recently lost and to transmit their love of the harp to future generations....
Open to harpists born on or after September 1st, 1987
Open to harpists born on or after September 1st, 2003
Open to harpists born on or after September 1st, 2009
Any Age
5 April 2023, 7:30pm
Elinor Bennett & Meinir Heulyn (Harps), Côr Telyn Gogledd Cymru (conductor Tudur Eames), Côr Godre’r Aran (conductor Eirian Owen).
Premier of “Llechi” by Math Roberts & Ifor ap Glyn performed by Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias alumni.
6 April 2023, 2:00pm
Programme will include ” Hymn for a Welshman – in Memoriam R S Thomas” by Menna Elfyn and Pwyll ap Sion
Welsh folk songs arranged by Grace Williams for voice and harp.
6 April 2023, 7:30pm
7 April 2023, 7:30pm
8 April 2023, 7:30pm
9 April 2023, 5:00pm
Pedair (Cymru)
Veronika Lemishenko (Ukraine)
The Griot Brothers
10 April 2023, 7:30pm
11 April 2023, 7:30pm
The final round of the Chief Musician Competition, where three young harpists shall perform solo works and Saint-Saëns duet for violin and harp.
See all the festival events.
