Aibhlín McCrann (Chair)

Aibhlín McCrann has been involved with the harp in Ireland as a performer, teacher, arranger and organiser for many years and has been a strong force for encouraging the integration of the Irish harp into mainstream Irish traditional music. She studied pedal harp with Caitríona Yeats and Mercedes Garvey and holds BA Hons, BMus degrees from University College Dublin.

Aibhlín has extensive radio, television and recording experience. Her arrangements feature in Cáirde na Cruite’s Sounding Harps publications and she was co-editor of Rogha na gCruitirí (100 Tunes for Irish Harp) published in 2010. She served on the board of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, and was a member of The Arts Council, An Chomhairle Ealaíon for two terms, where she was Deputy Chair 2012 – 2016. She became Chair of the Irish Chamber Orchestra in September 2017, and is also a member of the board of glór Arts Centre in Ennis, Co Clare.

Deirdre Granville (Joint Treasurer)

Deirdre Granville from Dingle, Co. Kerry is a multi-instrumentalist and singer. She has toured and performed extensively worldwide and has featured on Radio, commercial recordings and TV performances both solo and with other celebrated musicians. A music graduate from University College Cork and a MA performance graduate from University of Limerick, she has won numerous solo and group performance medals. She is co-ordinator and founder of Dingle Tradfest successful music festival. Deirdre’s debut solo album was released in the summer of 2015.

Teresa O’Donnell (Secretary)

For the past two decades, Teresa O’Donnell has worked as a freelance pedal and Irish harpist throughout Ireland, Europe and North America. Teresa lectured in music at St. Patrick’s College, DCU for six years and was awarded a Foras Feasa fellowship to research a PhD which she completed in 2012. She recently co-authored Sisters of the Revolutionaries: Margaret and Mary Brigid Pearse with her sister, Mary Louise O’Donnell.

Teresa began her harp studies with the late Sr. Eugene McCabe at Mount Sackville School, Dublin and later studied with the renowned French harpist Sebastien Lipman, and attended masterclasses with Professor Witsenberg and Han Ann Liu. A diverse musician, she has performed with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and has appeared on stage with Andrea Bocelli, Sinead O’ Connor, The Chieftains, The Celtic Tenors, Tommy Fleming and Katherine Jenkins. Teresa has featured on BBC, RTÉ, CNN and NHK (Japan).

Aileen Kennedy (Joint Treasurer)

Based in Co. Wexford, harper-composer Aileen Kennedy began her tuition with Cairde na Cruite in Wexford and continued by attending An Chúirt Chruitireachta, the international harp festival held in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth. She enjoyed success in many harp festivals, winning the Nobber, Granard and Keadue festivals. Aileen is a former member of the Belfast Harp Orchestra and some of her compositions are held in the National Library of Wales. She established the Cáirde Ceoil Harp Ensemble in Gorey, Co. Wexford, which consists of more than twenty harp players. They have performed at many events locally and internationally.

Siobhán Armstrong

Siobhán Armstrong is one of Europe’s foremost historical harpists, performing and recording with prestigious early-music soloists, orchestras and baroque opera companies. She also collaborates with some of the best traditional musicians in Ireland and Scotland.

Siobhán read Music at Trinity College Dublin, was a professional choral singer and played modern Irish harp before she specialised in earlier music. She now plays single and chromatic multi-row harps and particularly enjoys accompanying vocal music: from plainchant to polyphony to early Gaelic song to 17th-century Italian monody. Siobhán founded and directs The Historical Harp Society of Ireland, which is spearheading an international revival of the early Irish harp. She is currently completing PhD research into early Irish harp historical performance practice at Middlesex University, London.

Catríona Cannon

Catríona Cannon grew up in a musical family and began learning the harp at the age of 11 from her mother, Kathleen Loughnane. Catríona graduated with a first-class honours BA in Music and Italian in 2008 from University College Cork and attained an MA in Italian there in 2009. During this time she also lived in Rome, where she focused on composition and performance. Since 2004 she has been playing the harp with the Irish Reggae band Intinn with whom she has toured extensively throughout Ireland and Europe, winning the title of best UK/Ireland Reggae band in 2010.

Cormac De Barra

A native of Dublin, Cormac was raised in an Irish-speaking family of musicians and singers. He is a third generation harper, having first studied Irish harp with his grandmother, Róisín Ní Shé, before going on to study concert harp in the United States. He has performed across the globe both as a solo artist and with many of Ireland’s most respected and well-known artists including Clannad, Dervish, Altan, Moya Brennan and Brian Kennedy.

Cormac has made numerous recordings, including two CDs with members of the De Barra family and two under the title Voices & Harps, with Grammy Award-winning singer and the voice of Clannad, Moya Brennan. He has also recorded two harp duo CDs with harpist and composer, Anne-Marie O’Farrell. Cormac has also enjoyed a career in televison, having presented the traditional music series Flosc and three years as main host of the flagship arts series, Imeall, on the Irish language television station TG4.

Dearbhail Finnegan

Since 1996, Dearbhail has combined a busy solo performance career with her role as director of the Meath Harp Academy and founder of the Meath Harp Ensemble. Dearbhail has released five recordings and was delighted to record a track for Masters of the Irish Harp CD, released by Lyric FM and Cáirde na Cruite.

Dearbhail has also published two books of Irish Harp arrangements, which are on the harp syllabus of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Her music was featured in the animated movie “Nim’s Winter Tale” by Ola Schubert and was nominated as a finalist in the “Best Original Sound” category at the Flash Forward Conference in Seattle, USA. In 2014 she was made a Distinguished Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota. Most recently she has released a recording with her harp ensemble entitled The Chronicles of Meath composed by Vincent Kennedy.

Gráinne Hambly

Gráinne Hambly is an internationally recognised exponent of the Irish harp and is in great demand as a performer and teacher. With a Masters in musicology from Queens University in Belfast. She specialises in teaching Irish traditional music ‘by ear’ and is also an accomplished concertina player.

Gráinne has been playing professionally as a solo musician for many years and has appeared on numerous occasions in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Colombia Israel and Japan as well as touring extensively in the United States giving concerts, workshops and masterclasses. Gráinne has attracted glowing praise for her mastery of the instrument and has released 3 critically-acclaimed solo CDs and a collaborative recording with Scottish Harper William Jackson.

Janet Harbison

Award-winning Irish harper Dr. Janet Harbison was raised in a world of two music genres: traditional Irish music (winning allnational and a number of international harp competitions 1979-81) and classical music (studying piano at the Dublin College of Music, TCD and Cork University). She moved to Belfast in 1984 as Research Fellow at Queen’s University and became Curator of Music at the Ulster Folk Museum (1986-94). In 1992, she organised the Belfast Harpers’ Bicentenary Exhibition, the World Harp Festival Belfast, launched the Belfast Harp Orchestra and toured worldwide with the Chieftains (winning a Grammy Award 1993). In 1994, Janet established the Harp Foundation Ireland to support harp activities throughout Northern Ireland. In 2002, she returned to the Republic to establish the Irish Harp Centre in Castleconnell, County Limerick. She is currently visiting lecturer at the University of Ulster.

Laoise Kelly

Laoise Kelly is regarded as “the most significant harper of her generation”. She has pioneered a new style of driving instrumental harping showcased in her three critically acclaimed solo albums Just Harp, Ceis and Fáilte Uí Cheallaigh. She recently directed the first, highly successful, Achill International Harp Festival, encompassing her role as musical director of a newly commissioned Suite Sraith Oileán Acla for a 15 piece ensemble. Throughout her solo career she has recorded on over 60 albums with many of Ireland’s foremost artists including Seamus Heaney, The Chieftains, Christy Moore, Sharon Shannon, Dónal Lunny, Tommy Makem, Matt Molloy, Tommy Peoples, Mary Black, Maighread & Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, as well as Kate Bush and American country/bluegrass icon Tim O’Brien. She has toured and performed globally and at festivals such as Womad, Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours, Tonder, Dranouter, Lorient, Milwaukee, Armagh Piping Festival and all major harp festivals in Europe. Her latest album release is ‘Ar Lorg na Laochra’ with Monaghan Uilleann piper Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn.

Kathleen Loughnane

Irish music Meteor Award (2010) nominee Kathleen Loughnane is highly regarded for her work in arranging traditional Irish dance tunes and airs for the harp and also for researching the music of Irish harp composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1990, she co-founded Dordán, whose mix of Irish and Baroque music has received widespread acclaim. Dordán received the National Entertainment award for traditional music in 1993. Kathleen has 4 CDs and accompanying books to her credit, Affairs of the Harp, Harping On, Harp to Heart and her most recent release The Harpers Connellan. She has taught in Ireland and at major festivals in the US, Japan and throughout Europe. Her arrangements have appeared in various publications and feature on the Harp Syllabus of The Royal Irish Academy of Music. Kathleen is currently researching the manuscripts of Patrick O Neill of Owning, Carrick- on- Suir and making a selection from the manuscript to arrange for Irish harp.

Máire Ní Chathasaigh

Máire is the doyenne of Irish harp players, Female Musician of the Year in the Live Ireland 2016 awards and sole harper recipient to date of Irish music’s most prestigious award Gradam Cheoil TG4 – Traditional Musician of the Year. A multiple All-Ireland and Pan-Celtic winner, Máire has developed profoundly influential techniques for harp performance of traditional Irish music. Her celebrated virtuoso partnership with guitarist Chris Newman has made seven duo and two quartet albums and toured in twenty-two countries worldwide to venues ranging from the tiniest of village halls to palaces in Kyoto and Istanbul, London’s Barbican, Sydney Town Hall and Cologne’s Philharmonie. Her new recording with her sisters, The Casey Sisters: Sibling Revelry was released in 2016.

Áine Ní Dhubhghaill

Co-editor of Rogha na gCruitirí, Harpers’ Choice, Dubliner Áine Ní Dhubhghaill was immersed in Irish traditional music from an early age. She has performed at numerous harp festivals and concerts around the world including the US, Hungary, the Netherlands, Brittany, Wales, Scotland, England, Germany and Vietnam. She has premiered compositions by Savourna Stevenson and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and her recordings include several film scores and CDs as well as a feature on renowned Irish broadcaster Ciarán MacMathúna’s series A Touch of the Master’s Hand. As a Concert Harpist, Áine has played with orchestras and ensembles including the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. She teaches harp at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and has been a committee member of Cáirde na Cruite for many years.

Úna Ni Fhlannagáin

Úna Ni Fhlannagáin is a harper and composer from Craughwell, Co. Galway. She has won prizes for harp performance at the All-Ireland Fleadh, Keadue International Harp Festival, Granard Harp Festival, O’Carolan Harp Festival, and Oireachtas na Gaeilge. She has been commissioned to compose by the World Harp Congress, Moonfish Theatre Company and Mephisto Theatre, and has had compositions performed in Canada, America, the UK, Cork, Dublin and Galway. Her diverse artistic influences include the dance music tradition of North Clare, the American post-minimalists, Connemara sean-nós singing and ice-skating movies. She is particularly interested in Suzuki harp-teaching and improvisation.

Eithne Benson

Eithne began the harp in Dublin with Mercedes Bolger and then was taught in Newry by Sheila Larchet and Kay Rice. She studied pedal harp in France with Edwige Motte and then back in Newry with Aileen MacArdle. With Aileen’s support, she established and, for over 20 years, ran a successful harp department in the Southern Education and Library Board (SELB). Until retirement, Eithne was Head of Music Service in the SELB. She served for 8 years on the board of the Arts Council of N.I. and was N. I. Representative for the Federation of Music Services. She was a founder member of the board of the Ulster Youth Orchestra and is currently on the board of the Ulster Youth Choir.

Anne-Marie O’Farrell

Anne-Marie O’Farrell’s development of the Irish harp as a concert instrument has led to performances and recordings for TV and radio throughout Europe, the USA, Scandinavia and Japan. She is noted for her transcriptions of keyboard, lute and pedal harp repertoire for the Irish harp, and for her unique levering techniques. As a result other innovations in this area, she was consultant to Salvi harp makers on the design of their Irish harp, the Livia. Anne-Marie has just completed a residency in composition at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and was recently awarded her PhD from Queens University, Belfast. She has released solo CDs and recorded with Cormac De Barra. The Chieftains and Moya Brennan.