Festival Course

Course Tutors

Elinor Bennett

Course Tutor

Elinor Bennett studied with Osian Ellis at the Royal Academy of Music, London, after completing a degree in Law at Aberystwyth. She won first prizes in the National Eisteddfod of Wales on many occasions, and was the first harpist to be awarded the Recital Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music. Elinor played regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and other major British ensembles and has made 15 solo harp recordings, ranging from 20^th Century solo harp classics and chamber music, to Welsh traditional music on Triple Harp. Composers such as Malcolm Williamson, John Metcalf and Alun Hoddinott have written new works for her, and she directed harp studies at Bangor University for many years. Elinor was Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy and Guildhall School of Music, London, and was awarded an OBE for services to music and Honorary Fellowships from the Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Universities, the  Royal Academy of Music and Welsh College of Music and Drama, followed by an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Wales. She will retire as Artistic Director of the Wales International Harp Festival Festival in 2023.  

Dylan Cernyw

Course Tutor

Dylan Cernyw is a freelance harpist, performer and teacher who has performed in Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Prague, China and Switzerland.

He has been an accompanist at the National Eisteddfod, Urdd and the Cerdd Dant Music Festival since 1995. He appeared as a guest at the Festival of a Thousand Voices in London and has performed with artists such as Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, John Owen Jones, Shân Cothi, Rhys Meirion, Rhydian Roberts just to name a few.

He has produced 10 albums in total, 3 solo, 4 Piantel albums and 3 albums with harpist Gwenan Gibbard for Sunrise Music which were released in Hong Kong. Apart from these, Dylan has appeared on a large number of CDs as an accompanist.

As well as being a soloist and accompanist he performs with some of our leading artists. He is one half of the musical duo “Piantel” who have been performing together for over 20 years, part of the Jazz Harp duo Arpe Dolce, the Harp Quartet Telyn4 and performs in a cabaret act Two Blondes and a Harp. In 2024 a new group was formed under the name Tresillo which includes the soprano Sioned Terry and the guitarist Wyn Pearson, He likes to collaborate in many styles and some of the most recent performances were with the welsh group Lo-Fi Jones

As well as performing and traveling he is a Harp and Piano tutor with Denbighshire Music Co- operative and leader of the service’s New Harp Ensemble. He is proud to have been able to set up this 4-year project for the county’s primary school pupils to receive harp lesson for a year and for free to create interest among the county’s young students, and the chance of performing together.

Glain Dafydd

Course Tutor

Glain Dafydd’s music career includes successes in competitions such as winning the 4ème Rencontres Internationales de la Harpe en Île-de-France, the Bryn Terfel Scholarship and the ‘City of Szeged Prize’ at the Szeged International Harp Competition, Hungary. A string finalist in both the BBC Young Musician and Royal Over-Seas League competitions, she won the second prize at the Moscow International Harp Competition junior category. Glain studied at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and at the Royal Academy of Music. As a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, Glain has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, London Coliseum, Washington Cathedral, Thursford Christmas Spectacular, British Embassy in Paris and the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. She has also toured the UK and the US, and performed at festivals such as Harpissima, Suoni d’Arpa in Italy and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Having performed at the L’Instrumentarium Harpes in Paris and in Moret-sur- Loing last year, she will return this year to perform with Fiona Sweeney, her flute and harp duo partner. Glain is a Live Music Now artist, performing in hospitals, care homes and special educational needs schools. She teaches at Queen’s College London and St George’s College Weybridge, and is co-director of Hampstead Harp Centre.

Gwenan Gibbard

Course Tutor

Gwenan Gibbard stands at the forefront of today’s thriving Welsh traditional music scene with her unique, contemporary arrangements of Welsh traditional music and songs in the Welsh language.  She also specialises in the unique art of ‘Cerdd Dant’, the ancient form of singing Welsh poetry to the accompaniment of the harp, and is one of the few people who performs this music self-accompanied on the harp. Her performances have been far and wide, in numerous festivals and concerts in several countries, including Canada, North and South America, Hong Kong and Europe, and she has released four solo albums on the Sain label – her latest album, ‘Hen Ganeuon Newydd’ (Old New Songs), relating to her current doctorate research into the folk-songs of her home area, Llŷn and Eifionydd. 

Having graduated in Music from Bangor University, she then continued to study for an MA degree in Welsh music before studying the harp at the Royal Academy of Music. She works with Sain Recording Company and also performs as a solo artist and as part of the folk group ‘Pedair’.

Catrin Morris Jones

Course Tutor

Catrin Morris Jones studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, London where she was awarded the Renata Scheffel-Stein Prize for Harp. In May 2014 she was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy. Originally from Bangor and after twenty-five years of living and working in London, she has now moved to live in Pwllheli.

Teaching children and adults to play the harp has been an important part of Catrin’s career and she has taught many students over the years in addition to teaching at various schools, including Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain (London Welsh School) where her children attended. She is now a tutor at William Mathias Music Center and for the Gwynedd and Anglesey Schools Music Service.

She has performed in numerous West End shows including Oliver!, Phantom of the Opera, The King and I, Notré Dame de Paris, The Producers, My Fair Lady, Napoleon, The Secret Garden and South Pacific (Royal National Theatre). Catrin has also performed with many prominent orchestras, including: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia,  Royal Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ensemble 10/10, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera Orchestra, the Opera São Carlos in Lisbon, Portugal, London City Ballet, Moscow City Ballet and the Northern Ballet Company.