Fran Barsby

www.franbarsbyharpist.co.uk

Fran Barsby on Facebook

"I have never met anyone like her, she is just extraordinary; such an entrepreneur, fantastic musician, willing friend, generous spirit and an incredible composer."
​-​ Eleanor Turner 2016
Fran Barsby is a British harpist known for her passion and innovation. Fran made her professional debut in 2008 at St John’s Smith Square, London. Since then she has enjoyed performing in venues such as Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester Minerva Theatre and many more. Fran has competed in and won many competitions including West Sussex Musician of the Year in 2011. Her solo and ensemble career with groups such as the International Harp Ensemble, and various chamber groups and orchestras has taken her around Europe.  
In 2015 Fran graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire of Music. During this time Fran enjoyed studying with teachers including Catherine White, Gabriella Dall'Olio, David Watkins, Skaila Kanga, Louisa Maria Cordell, Charlotte Seale, and Anne Hughes Chamberlain. 
"Fran is a passionate young musician. Her playing and enthusiasm are truly catching."
​-Gabriella Dall'Olio

Since 2015, Fran has enjoyed a flourishing career as a harpist. As Pilgrim Harps Online Marketing Coordinator and Resident Harpist, Fran enjoys performing and conducting masterclasses on behalf of the company. Fran particularly enjoys organising "Come and Try the Harp" events which offer the opportunity for anyone of any age and ability can try a harp and learn more about the instrument. ​
"Fran is our Pilgrim Harp whirlwind! she has so much passion and enthusiasum for everything harp! She is a consummate  performer and superb teacher. Everything Fran does, is done with such drive. It is going to be interesting to see where it takes her." 
​- Pilgrim Harps
Fran has been teaching the harp for 7 years. She currently teaches privately and in three schools in the Midlands; Kings High School for Girls, Warwick Preparatory School and The Blue Coat School Birmingham.  Fran ensures all her students have regular opportunities to perform and runs termly student concerts. Fran teaches privately from her harp studio in Warwick. The Harp Studio is the home of PoppyHarp. PoppyHarp is a lever harp showroom for Pilgrim Harps and a publishing company for young professional composers. Fran is Company Director of PoppyHarp Publishing. April 2015 brought the release of a new set of Harp tuition books for students of all ages, parental help guides and advice for teachers. As Company Director of PoppyHarp Publishing, Fran helps young professional musicians and composers publish their first compositions. From PoppyHarp Fran has launched the Future Blend Project. The project is now internationally renowned; it is a year long composition competition that pairs harpists and composers together in order to create some incredible new music. The project is now in its third year and has had two sell out concerts, published 18 new works and recorded 2 CD’s of brand new harp music. As Founder and Director of the Future Blend Project, Fran has enjoyed working with a wide variety of musicians such as Eleanor Turner, Kirsty Devaney, Dominic Sewell, Paul Lewis, Edmund Joillfe, Shelley FairPlay, Amy Turk and more. ​
"All of Fran's work, whether performing or teaching, is characterised by 150% commitment and enthusiasm. She performs with emotional intensity and a beautiful sound, and her teaching work equally benefits from her passion for sharing the joy of music with everyone."
​- Catherine White
Fran also enjoys working with various charities and projects such as the Harp On Wight Festival as a web-designer. PoppyHarp specialises in creating easy to use websites for young professional musicians. Fran enjoys her diverse career, performing in concerts, at weddings and events, as a music and health musicians at hospitals and hospices, teaching and running her companies. 

Becki Mcllory

​Becki is a music graduate from The University of Manchester, currently studying for her Masters at The Royal Northern College of Music under the tuition of Eira Lynn Jones.
As well as performing regularly as a soloist, Becki also enjoys orchestral performance, and has worked with conductors such as Peter Stark, Clark Rendell and Mark Herron, as well as with the Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra, The Northern Lusofonia, RNCM New Ensemble, Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Manchester University Symphony Orchestra and VAGANZA (New Music Ensemble). During her undergraduate degree she enjoyed a wide variety of chamber ensemble opportunities including a Harp and Flute duo, work with choral ensembles, musical theatre productions and session work within acoustic band settings. 
Whilst studying for her Masters Becki has been exploring the use of the harp within experimental electronic projects and has continued her chamber work with a new violin and harp duo, and The Chroma Harp duo. 

​Becki has a passion for outreach work, and has recently been involved with Streetwise Opera Manchester's Easter production. She has also been involved in the RNCM's ‘Young Performers’ series in a live film-scoring project, introducing children to the classical music world. She is passionate about communicating the versatility of the harp and regularly works alongside the RNCM's Young Harp scheme, teaching and assisting new harpists as they are introduced to performance in an ensemble setting.
Becki loves to discover and perform new contemporary works, and regularly works alongside composers to develop and expand the harp repertoire. In May she performed in the Wigmore Hall as part of their Tansy Davies composer series, and performs regularly with contemporary orchestras. She recently gave the European premiere of Paul Patterson’s harp duet, ‘Scorpions’ as part of the Chroma Harp Duo, a piece for which the duo was awarded first prize in the ensemble class at the Camac Harp Competition in London and the UKHA prize for the best performance of a work by a British composer. Becki has been working alongside Paul, and showcased his harp solo ‘Lizards’ as part of the 13th World Harp Congress in Hong Kong.

Lucy Nolan

Lucy Nolan began studying the harp at the age of seven with Eira Lynn Jones. After graduating from Oxford University in 2013 with a BA in Music, she returned to study for a Masters in Performance in which she achieved a Distinction. During her time at Oxford University she was awarded the Margaret Irene Seymour Award, the Archibald Jackson Prize for outstanding postgraduate results and an Alice Horsman Scholarship as well as the Oxford Philomusica Young Artists’ platform for her performance with flautist, Aimee Taylor.
Lucy is passionate about helping to develop new music for the harp. As a keen performer of contemporary music she was part of an ensemble of 20 harps who performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and was invited to play in the first performance of a work for harp, flute and viola by Peter Reynolds. She worked closely with the composer Paul Patterson, to prepare his work, Armistice, for a performance in July for the World Harp Congress in Hong Kong and she recently gave the European premiere of his harp duet, ‘Scorpions’ as part of the Chroma Harp Duo, a piece for which the duo was awarded first prize in the ensemble class at the Camac Harp Competition in London and the UKHA prize for the best performance of a work by a British composer. She was also selected to work with the Norwegian composer, Eyvind Gulbrandsen, as part of a Moving Classics project which culminated in the premiere of a new piece at the Hull City of Culture Festival this year.

Lucy enjoys performing a wide range of music and recent projects include a concert as part of a contemporary Indian duo at an event for the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, a programme of Mahler’s songs with Ian Bostridge, Handel’s Harp Concerto in B-flat Op.4 with New Chamber Opera and a production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical, A Little Night Music, at the Oxford Playhouse. As well as performing regularly as a soloist, Lucy is also a keen orchestral player and has worked with conductors such as Sir Mark Elder and Gabor Takacs Nagy as well as with the Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra, Philomusica of Aberystwyth, Amadeus Orchestra, Halle Youth Orchestra, Oxford University Orchestra, Oxford Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble ISIS. She was recently selected to go on tour with the European Union Youth Wind Orchestra in Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands.
Lucy is currently continuing her development through postgraduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Eira Lynn Jones for which she has been awarded an entrance scholarship. ​

Sophie Rocks

Sophie Rocks on Facebook

Sophie is a freelance harpist based in Manchester. Sophie has had several years of experience playing at a variety of functions, including weddings, corporate events and birthday celebrations. Whatever your occasion, music is an important part of it and to make your day as special as possible, Sophie will work with you personally to find the perfect programme that suits you. Sophie offers an extensive range of repertoire and music of any genre is available, be it classical, jazz, pop, traditional or anything else you may desire! If you have a particular song or piece in mind, Sophie is more than happy to arrange something of your choice.  
Sophie fell in love with the clarsach at a young age, and began lessons at the age of six in the Shetland Islands. At ten, she gained entry to one of Scotland’s National centres of excellence, Aberdeen City Music School, where she studied both clarsach and the Concert harp with Anne Macdearmid. Following this, Sophie went on to study further at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Eira Lynn Jones where she gained a First class Bachelor of Music degree with honours. She is currently continuing her studies at the Royal Northern and pursuing a Masters degree in Music.

​As a soloist, Sophie gives recitals around the country and has performed in venues including the Glasgow Burrell collection, the Shetland museum, the Whitworth Art Gallery, the Gorton Monastery and King’s College chapel. She has also featured as a soloist on  BBC Radio 3 and is a finalist in the Royal Northern College of Music's 2017 Gold Medal competition, the highest award that the college gives for performance.  . Furthermore, out with her solo performances, Sophie thoroughly enjoys playing in Orchestras and Ensembles. As an orchestral player, Sophie has had the opportunity to tour Europe on a number of occasions, allowing her to perform in Bratislava, the Czech Republic, Italy and Germany. Within the UK, Sophie has performed in various prestigious venues including Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, The Sage Gateshead, Bridgewater Hall and The Royal Albert Hall.

Amy Turk

www.amyturkharp.com

Amy Turk on Facebook

Amy Turk is a harpist working throughout the south of England. She has more than a decade of experience performing at high profile concerts, events, functions and wedding ceremonies, and has toured extensively throughout the UK. With a wide range of musical interests, she can play pieces from any genre or time period to suit the special requirements of the occasion.
Amy's fascination with the harp began when she was six years old, and from the age of seven she was fortunate to be taught by the charismatic Ann Hughes-Chamberlain, herself a pupil of the legendary Lily Laskine. From the very beginning, Amy won the hearts of her audiences with her passion and honesty, playing both at intimate gatherings and at large events. During her teens she became a junior scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, and won awards at numerous music festivals.
​Amy grew up with a love of a wide variety of music thanks to her parent's record collection, and could be found listening to Grieg or Rachmaninoff as readily as Genesis, Led Zeppelin or Dire Straits. In her teens she became enthralled by transcription, arranging, composition and music technology, and spent much time performing and recording with her brother, drummer/guitarist Ben Turk, in various projects including power metal band Sorcerer’s Spell, and their own duo project Ben & Amy, under which they released two surrealist pop albums, Science (2007) and The New Food To Eat (2009). As a graduate Amy completed a Masters degree with distinction at the Royal Academy of Music, under the tutorship of Karen Vaughan, former co-principal of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Having consolidated her skills at the Academy, Amy now arranges pop, rock, film and video game music for the harp, and explores her fascination of guitar based music by writing percussive contemporary acoustic solo harp works in the style of modern acoustic guitar icons such as Andy McKee and Jon Gomm. Her work is available to view on YouTube.