The Clarsach Society and the Edinburgh International Harp Festival are proud to announce that the 2023 winner of the Iain Macleòid Young Composer Award is Donnchadh Mac Aodha.

Harp player Donnchadh Mac Aodha is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Dundalk Co.Louth, Ireland. 

Currently studying composition under the direction of John Godfrey as part of his BMus degree at University College Cork, Donnchadh is both a traditional Irish and classical musician and finds himself most at home with these genre allowing his bi-musical upbringing to influence his works. In particular, he is drawn to the Irish language and deals with ideas of belonging and identity in his music. 

Already a prize winning composer, having taken away honours from the New Ross Piano Festival and the West Wicklow Chamber Music Festival Composition Competition, The Clarsach Society are thrilled to award him The Iain Macleòid Young Composer Award. 

We look forward to hearing the premiere of his award-winning composition Ambaist at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival in April. 

The 43rd Edinburgh International Harp Festival will take place from the 5th -9th April, in George Watson’s College, Edinburgh. We’ve been working hard to organise a wonderful festival for you to enjoy in April and next month we’ll be ready to share with you the full details of the 2024 concerts, courses (including a small selection of online zoom courses).

However, we have some news to share with you now. We’ll be updating this post on week days (until 21st Dec) with who you can expect to see performing and tutoring at the festival. Read on to discover more…

• Our box office will open in January.
• Full information on all concerts/courses/workshops will be available in January.
• Harp hire (for those of you coming from afar) will open on the 10th January.

2024 PERFORMERS:

• ADRIANO SANGINETO (ITALY) 
• ALICE GUSE (SCOTLAND)
• ANNE-MARIE O’FARRELL (IRELAND)
• CHRIS STOUT & CATRIONA MCKAY (SCOTLAND)
• DIEGO LAVERDE ROJAS (COLOMBIA)
• ELEANOR DUNSDON & GREGOR BLACK (ENGLAND/IRELAND)
• ELINOR EVANS (SCOTLAND)
• RHONA SMITH & STEPHANIE HUMPHREYS with THE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
• INGRID HENDERSON & IAIN MACFARLANE with MARGARET STEWART (SCOTLAND)
• JAMES RUFF (USA)
• MARIA MONK (SCOTLAND)
• SIXTO CORBALAN & PEDRO MARTÍNEZ (PARAGUAY)
• SUE ROTHSTEIN (ENGLAND)
• SUNITA STANESLOW (USA)
• TARRAN featuring MALACHY ARNOLD (SCOTLAND)
• RNCM HARP ENSEMBLE

2024 COURSE TUTORS:

• ADRIANO SANGINETO
• AILIE ROBERTSON
• ANNE-MARIE O’FARRELL
• BILL TAYLOR
• CATRIONA MCKAY
• CHARLOTTE PETERSEN
• DIEGO LAVERDE
• ELEANOR HETHERINGTON
• ELINOR EVANS
• FIONA RUTHERFORD
• HEATHER DOWNIE
• HEATHER YULE
• INGRID HENDERSON
• ISOBEL MIERAS
• JAMES RUFF
• MALACHY ARNOLD
• PEDRO MARTÍNEZ
• RACHEL HAIR
• ROSEMARY MCKERCHAR
• SIXTO CORBALAN
• SUE ROTHSTEIN
• SUNITA STANESLOW
• TONI RUSSELL
• WENDY STEWART

Hello everyone,

We know we’ve been a bit quiet lately – that’s because we’ve been busy planning our next festival!

We will begin announcing artists and tutors in December with full details of all courses/concerts/workshops available in January. Our box office will open shortly after that.

We hope you will join us in 2024. Put the dates in your diary – 5-9 April – as we can’t wait to reunite with you all for some happy harping times again in Edinburgh!

The EIHF

We’ve now uploaded our photos from the 2023 Edinburgh International Harp Festival onto the Gallery page of this website. We’d like to say a huge thank you to our photographer John Davidson for taking such great pictures, and providing a record of the festival for many years to come. We hope you enjoy looking at them.

THANK YOU to everyone who took part in the 42nd Edinburgh International Harp Festival…. performers, tutors, participants, audience members, harp exhibitors, ceilidh dancers and session players… what a wonderful celebration of all things HARP!

Keep an eye on the gallery page of this website as we be uploading photos from the festival over the next week.

NEXT YEARS DATES: 5 – 9 April 2024*

The 43rd Edinburgh International Harp Festival will take place over 5 nights and 4 days at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh.

*dates subject to change

A huge thanks to the Trad Music Forum and the Directory of Musicians for making their playlist this month a celebration of all things Harp, full of great harp music, ready to get you in the mood for our festival, starting this Friday.

With ten fantastic tracks from ten of Scotland’s leading harp players, you can listen via Spotify HERE.

We are pleased to announce the following arrangements below for food and drink at the EIHF 2023.

We know it’s important to keep you fuelled during the festival and we appreciate Easter is a busy time in local restaurants so we are very happy to tell you that this year we have evening meals available.

**To help our caterers plan effectively, please book your evening meal in advance.**

Eating together is a wonderful way to socialise with friends (both old and new), tutors and performers at the EIHF so we do hope you’ll join us!

FESTIVAL CAFE:

Open Sat – Tue 8.30am – 3.00pm

• Breakfast items including bacon rolls & croissants
• Lunch options including soup, sandwiches, baguettes, panini, baked potatoes and pies,
• Coffee, tea and snacks.

EVENING MEAL:

Available Fri – Tue, 5.00pm-7.00pm

An opportunity to wind down, catch-up and refuel with harping friends after a busy day of learning and enjoyment. Please explore the menus we have on offer each day below. Each day has a vegetarian and meat option.

**Booking essential to guarantee availability.**

Evening Meal Pass (5 evenings) £50 BOOK HERE

Friday Evening Meal £10 BOOK HERE

• Creamy Macaroni Cheese OR Pork Meatballs with Pasta & Tomato & Basil Sauce
• Traybake
• Tea/Coffee

Saturday Evening Meal £10 BOOK HERE

• Pasta Napoletana served with Garlic Bread OR Beef Bolognaise served with Garlic Bread
• Traybake
• Tea/Coffee

Monday Evening Meal £10 BOOK HERE

• Vegetarian Nachos, Salsa & Sour Cream OR Spanish Chicken & Pepperoni Savoury Rice
• Traybake
• Tea/Coffee

Tuesday Evening Meal £10 BOOK HERE

• Creamy Pesto Pasta served with Garlic Bread OR Beef Lasagne
• Traybake
• Tea/Coffee

FESTIVAL BAR:

The festival bar in the Gathering Space is open from 5pm – midnight. It will close during concert performances but will open for interval drinks.

Cash and card are accepted.

Wire Harp // Yoga // Scots Gaelic

Fancy trying something new at this year’s harp festival? Perhaps something that isn’t your usual harp?

Well why not check out one of our Come and Try sessions? We’ve 3 different things for you to try for 2023, and several chances for each of them. Click on the times to be taken to the booking page.

Come and Try: Wire Harp with Bill Taylor

Saturday 8th April, 9.00-10.00am

Sunday 9th April, 9.00-10.00am

Come and Try: Yoga with Clara Hyder

Monday 10th April, 1.00-2.30pm

Tuesday 11 April, 9.00-10.00am

Come and Try: Learn a Little Gaelic with Màiri Macleod

Saturday 8th April, 4.30 – 5.15pm

Monday 10th April, 10.00am-10.45am

Tuesday 11th April, 9.00-9.45am