Announcement regarding the 2020 Wales Harp Festival

18 Mar 2020

It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that the Wales Harp Festival which was due to take place from 8-9 April has to be postponed due to the Covid-19 virus situation. However we are determined to re-schedule and not cancel and will be in touch with you shortly with further details and hope that you will be keen to join us on the new date. If you have registered / bought tickets and are unable to attend on the new dates later on in the year, then we will arrange a refund. But please bear with us for the next few days as we are currently having to delay / re-schedule our entire work programme and adjust to working as staff from our homes. In the meantime keep playing the harp and follow this facebook page where we hope to post some videos etc to lift evereyone’s spirit over the next few weeks.

Best regards,

Elinor, Meinir and the team

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

Competitions

Chief Musician

Open to harpists born on or after September 1st, 1987

Youth

Open to harpists born on or after September 1st, 2003

Junior

Open to harpists born on or after September 1st, 2009

World Music

Any Age

Concerts

Opening Concert

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.

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Elinor Bennett (Harp)
Menna Elfyn (Poet)
Glesni Rhys Jones (Soprano)
Elain Rhys Jones (Harp)

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.

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