Applications are now open for the 6th Camac Trophy, the lever harp award we're proud to sponsor at the prestigious Festival Interceltique every summer in Brittany. You'll recognise many stars of the lever harp in the list of past winners: François Pernel (2012), Quentin Vesture (2011), Nikolaz Cadoret (2010), Maël Lhopiteau (2009) and Lina Bellard (2008)! Find all details on the application form below, or via the festival's website.
competitions
18th Petar Konjovic International Competition, Belgrade
More competition news: we're off to Serbia for the 18th Petar Konjovic International Competition, which will be held in Zemun, Belgrade over the coming weekend. Best of luck to everyone taking part - with seven categories ranging from under-eleven, to young professional, the jury will have their work cut out!
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Results of the Camac Harp Competition, London 2013
Very many congratulations to all the laureates of the recent Camac Harp Competition, London!
They are:
FIRST PRIZE: Tamara Young
SECOND PRIZE: Solenn Grand
THIRD PRIZE: Catherine Derrick
Also, this year Virginia Burdon-Cooper will be retiring as competition administrator. This can be a rather thankless job, but it is an essential one. We're very grateful to Virginia for all her work for more than a decade: she has done a great amount to boost the harp competition's profile, and turn it into a fixture in the British harp calendar.
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Two festivals in Wales
Many thanks to Elfair Grug Dyer for this report on the recent Pencerdd Gwalia festival and competition, as well as the long-established Caernarfon Festival!
Two Harp Festivals in Wales
For a decade the Caernarfon Harp Festival has been a part of my Easter holidays. Presented by the William Mathias Music Centre, every year the festival celebrates a different aspect of the history of the harp and this year was no different - it was a double celebration! One hundred years ago the Welsh harpist-composer John Thomas, Pencerdd Gwalia, died and in the same year one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century who contributed to the harp repertoire, Benjamin Britten was born.
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Results of the Pencerdd Gwalia Competitions 2013
Here are the results of the two competitions of the Pencerdd Gwalia Festival. The final stages took place in Bridgend, Wales, birthplace of the great Welsh harpist John Thomas, last week on April 13th.
Junior Competition - under 17 years of age:
1. Mared Emyr Pugh-Evans
2. Molly-Rowan Sharples
3. Cassandra Tomella
Senior Competition - under 25, but with no lower age limit:
1. Llywelyn Ifan Jones
2. Elfair Grug Dyer
3. Molly-Rowan Sharples
Congratulations to all laureates!
The final followed rounds of competition in South and North Wales. The competition day was rounded off by a concert to celebrate John Thomas' life and work, featuring performances by Catrin Finch, Hannah Stone, Katherine Thomas, Gary Griffiths and the Tabernacle Choir. We sponsored the concert, and the first prize in the Junior Competition was sponsored by our Cardiff partners, Telynau Vining Harps.
The festival website has a good collection of information about John Thomas, ranging from contemporary anecdotes and extracts from Thomas's own journals, to two articles about Bridgend in the 1830s and links to events, recordings and sheet music.
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Cité des Arts prize tour: Maureen Thiébaut
Maureen Thiébaut in the final of the Cité des Arts competition, performing with the Quatuor Michalakakos. Photo: Jean-Marc Volta
Maureen Thiébaut, winner of the last Concours de la Cité des Arts de Paris, will perform her prize tour in April. She will start with a matinée recital at the Harfengalerie Camac Berlin, on April 21st, 2013 at 11AM. Your next chance to hear her will be in Cardiff: a lunchtime concert at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, April 30th at 1:15PM. Finally, she will perform in Italy on May 26th, at the beautiful Villa Carlotta on Lake Como.
Villa Carlotta
Entrance to all events is free. If you need any more information, please contact our partners in Berlin, Cardiff and Milan, our collaborators on the tour:
Harfengalerie Camac Berlin
+49 30 21 97 11 76
info@harfengalerie.de
Telynau Vining Harps
+44 2920 620900
info@camacharps.co.uk
Camac Italia
+39 3280 36 46 96
info@harpshop.eu
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Interview with Attila Reményi
The closing date for the Third International Harp Competition in Szeged (November 28 - December 3, 2013) is not until the 30th of September, but if you're going in for the competition you're probably working on your programme already. In which case: there's an interesting interview with Attila Reményi, whose Miniatures are the set work in the competition's senior cateogry.
The Miniatures, which won the Third International Composition Competition in Fukui, Japan in 1998, are not Reményi's sole contribution to the harp repertoire. He has written no less than ten solo and chamber works (catalogued at the end of the interview), including for pedal harp, lever harp, harp duet, harp ensemble, flute and harp, and fl/vla/hp trio.
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Concours Bellan 2013
The Concours Bellan is a historic French competition across all instrumental disciplines. Founded in 1926, it has a distinguished roll of laureates - Olivier Messiaen, Michel Legrand, and Marielle Nordmann, to name but three. It has been recently revived, and includes a harp section - the first round of which will take place on May 14th, and the final on May 19th, both at the Espace Bellan, 64 rue du Rocher, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.
There are no age limits, and no set works. The first round is a free-choice programme not longer than ten minutes, and the same under twenty minutes for the final. The closing date is March 30th, extended from January 31st.
You can find an English version of the rules here (scroll down a bit - the English is under the French). The application forms are here, and if you want to talk to somebody for more information, you can do so in English under these phone numbers:
+33 6 83 36 92 40
+33 1 47 05 94 31
+39 335 61 05 833
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Claire Iselin wins Isabelle Bond Gold Medal, London
Claire Iselin. Photo: J K Photography
Congratulations to Claire Iselin, winner of the Camac Harp Competition in London in 2009, who has been awarded the highest solo performance prize from her college, the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Claire beat five other finalists across all instrumental disciplines, plus composition, to win the Isabelle Bond Gold Medal 2013. Bravo to Claire and to her professor, Gabriella Dall'Olio!
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Results: Concours français de la harpe 2013
Congratulations to the laureates of the Concours français de la harpe, which took place last weekend in Limoges. You can view the results here!
164 candidates came to Limoges from as far away as China and Korea, to play for an international jury presided over by Isabelle Moretti. Aiste Baliunyte (Lithuania) was awarded the first prize in the most senior "excellence" category, of one of our Bardic harps.
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