Catrin Ana Finch is a Welsh harpist, arranger and composer. She was the Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2000 to 2004 [1] and is visiting professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Finch has given recitals at venues throughout the world.
Catrin Finch was born in Llanon, Ceredigion, and began learning the harp at the age of six. Her mother is German and her father English, and she is a fluent Welsh speaker. [2] By the age of nine, she had passed her grade VIII harp examination. [3] She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of ten, becoming the youngest of its members to play at The Proms. [4] She studied harp with Elinor Bennett, who would become her mother-in-law, before attending the Purcell School, a specialist music school for children in Hertfordshire. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied harp with Skaila Kanga. [5] [3] [6]
During the 1990s, Finch won several competitions for young harpists, including the Nansi Richards Prize and the Blue Riband at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. [5]
Finch's award-winning musical career began in 1999, when she won the Lily Laskine International Harp Competition in France. [3] In 2000, she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York City, [3] subsequently performing at London's Wigmore Hall. [5] She was later appointed Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales, an office reinstated by Prince Charles and which had been vacant since the reign of Queen Victoria. [1] She continued in the post from 2000 to 2004. [7]
In 2003, Finch presented Charlie’s Angel, an award-winning television documentary about her career, broadcast on BBC Wales. [8]
In recognition of her musical achievements, Finch has been awarded with several academic honours starting with an honorary fellowship from the University of Wales in 2006, as well as honorary fellowships from the University of Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 2005. She is a visiting professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. [3]
In 2010, Finch appeared as part of the BBC children's television series ZingZillas , performing a lullaby composed by Chris Banks and Wag Marshall-Page entitled "Drift Away", alongside the other members of the ZingZillas band. The performance was used in series 1, episode 10 of the show, entitled "Sweet Dreams". [9]
2011 saw Finch produce the album Annwn where she arranged, performed and for the first time provided vocals on a number of tracks influenced by Welsh mythology, an interest of hers since she was young. Featuring a collection of traditional Welsh music, many tracks are newly arranged by Finch in a contemporary style, borrowing from jazz as well as electronic ambient music. The album title refers to Annwn , the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. [10]
In 2015, Finch toured Patagonia with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, taking her family with her. [11]
In 2016, Finch performed on the recording of Cantata Memoria by Karl Jenkins, a choral with orchestra piece dedicated to the children who perished in the 1966 Aberfan disaster. The haunting music contains the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful and also features vocals from Bryn Terfel. The piece premiered at the Aberfan Memorial Concert at the Wales Millennium Centre which also featured spoken-word pieces from Michael Sheen and Sian Phillips. Finch's composition Future Strings from the album Clychau Dibon, which she had written with Seckou Keita, was sampled by Guy Chambers, long-term songwriter to Robbie Williams who heard it played on Desert Island Discs program on BBC Radio 4 . [12]
Until 2017 Finch and her then husband Hywel Wigley jointly ran Acapela Studio, a recording facility and venue in a converted chapel in Pentyrch, near Cardiff. [7] [13]
In 2018 Finch released her second album with Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita, entitled SOAR. [14] [15] Reviewing it for the London Evening Standard , Simon Broughton described the work: "A sublime duo of two artists who are masters of their instruments... musicality and architecture at work." Robin Denselow in The Guardian said: "an intriguing collaboration that really works... the interaction is remarkable…an elegant, gently exquisite set". [16]
Finch performed with classically trained Irish folk violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain at the March 2021 Other Voices online festival, playing a duet of Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No 3. This led to a collaboration between them that produced the 2023 album Double You, a mixture of adaptations of classical pieces and folk tunes from Ireland, Brittany and Wales, along with their own compositions. [17] [18] [19]
In 2003, Finch married the music and television producer Hywel Wigley, son of the former Plaid Cymru leader Lord Dafydd Wigley and the harpist Elinor Bennett. [6] [13] They have two children together. The couple formally separated in 2017. On 14 December 2019, Finch married her partner Natalie in Tenby. [20]
In February 2018 Finch announced on that she had been diagnosed with grade 3 breast cancer. [21] She was given the all-clear in October 2018 following treatment at Velindre Cancer Centre, Cardiff.
Nansi Richards Jones was a Welsh harpist, sometimes known as the "Queen of the Harp" or by her bardic name "Telynores Maldwyn".
Pentyrch is a village and community located on the western outskirts of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The village gives its name to a Cardiff local authority electoral ward, Pentyrch, which covers the village and immediate surrounding area. The Pentyrch community includes the neighbouring village of Creigiau and Gwaelod y Garth. People living in Pentyrch are commonly known as "Penterchyians".
This article is about the particular significance of the year 2006 to Wales and its people.
fRoots was a specialist music magazine published in the UK between 1979 and 2019. It specialised in folk and world music, and featured regular compilation downloadable albums, with occasional specials. In 2006, the circulation of the magazine was 12,000 worldwide.
Elinor Bennett, Baroness Wigley, OBE is a Welsh harpist who has an international reputation as a soloist, master instructor, and founded the Harp College of Wales.
Seckou Keita is a kora player and drummer from Senegal. He is one of the few champions of the lesser-known kora repertoire from Casamance in southern Senegal.
The Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales is a position within the Royal Household. In 2000, King Charles III, the then Prince of Wales, revived a tradition of having Welsh harpists, which was the first time the post has been occupied since it was last granted to John Thomas in 1871 by Queen Victoria.
The London Jazz Festival is a music festival held every November. It takes place in London venues such as the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall and in smaller jazz clubs, such as Ronnie Scott's and the Vortex Jazz Club. It is produced by Serious.
Jemima Phillips is an English-born Welsh harpist. She was the Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2004 to 2007 but was later convicted of handling stolen goods.
Siobhán Owen is a soprano and harpist from Adelaide, South Australia. Owen regularly performs at festivals, concerts and events around Australia and further abroad. She favours classical and Celtic/folk songs, but also sings pop and jazz on occasion.
Hannah Stone is a professional Welsh harpist.
Claire Jones is a Welsh harpist who held the title of Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2007 to 2011.
Anne Denholm is a Welsh harpist born in Carmarthenshire, who held the position of Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2015 to 2019.
Anaveydober Ordóñez Triana, better known as Ana Veydó, is a Colombian joropo singer. She is the lead singer of Cimarron.
Alis Huws is a Welsh harpist from Powys, the sixth and current Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales.
Welsh folk music refers to music that is traditionally sung or played in Wales, by Welsh people or originating from Wales.
Aoife Mairead O'Brien is an Irish violinist from North Dublin. Her career has traversed numerous musical genres including classical, traditional, jazz and contemporary music. She has been the recipient of numerous awards in both the classical and traditional world, including a Gradam Ceoil TG4 Musical Collaboration Award for her work with the Goodman Trio, and a RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award for Best Folk Instrumentalist. Aoife has been described as "one of the most versatile musicians of her generation" and "an exceptionally talented and multifaceted violinist".
The Dutch Harp Festival (DHF) is a harp musical festival that takes place every two years in Utrecht, Netherlands. The Dutch Harp Festival was founded in 2010 and features harpists from around the world and a variety of musical genres. The festival also includes visuals, sound and light installations, instrument workshops, and an area to try out different harps.
Mared Emyr Pugh Evans is a Welsh harpist. She is the seventh Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales.
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