Elinor Bennett is one of Wales' most distinguished musicians. She enjoys a formidable reputation on the international stage both through live performances and numerous recordings. Her wide repertoire encompasses many styles and periods and her concert programmes demonstrate the versatility of an artist who is equally at home with the music of contemporary composers as she is in the traditional music of her native Wales.



Coming from a Welsh background in which music was an inherent and natural part of everyday life, Elinor studied the harp from the age of eleven but graduated in Law at the university College of Wales, Aberystwyth before winning a Countess of Munster Trust Scholarship to study the harp at the Royal Academy of Music with Osian Ellis. She then went on to play with most of Britain's major orchestras and worked with many of the greatest conductors of our time -- Barbirolli, Boult, Britten, Leinsdorf and Colin Davis to name a few. She has also appeared as a soloist in London's main concert halls and at most major British festivals and has toured extensively in Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA, appearing at many international harp congresses.

 

Elinor broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and appears frequently on radio and television in Wales. Her twelve solo recordings to date cover a wide range of music for different types of harp. Most recently the contemporary CD Sea of Glass including works by Pärt and Glass on the Lorelt label (awarded a BBC Music Magazine 5-star rating in 1994) and the premiere recording of Mathias's "Santa Fe Suite" for Nimbus have been greeted enthusiastically by critics on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

A number of major contemporary composers have written works specially for Elinor, including Alun Hoddinott, Malcolm Williamson, Hilary Tann and Rhian Samuel. John Metcalf's "Harp Scrapbook" was the result of a particularly close collaboration and formed the basis of a television documentary for S4C. Elinor is also the editor of a compilation of new works for harp by Welsh composers entitled Living Harp, published in 1996 by Cyhoeddiadau Curiad.

 

Elinor Bennett is widely recognised as one of Britain's leading harp teachers and has organised many courses and seminars for young harpists throughout Wales including the annual Harp College of Wales (Coleg Telyn Cymru). She has direct experience of a unique tradition to impart to young players and is proud of her roots in the traditional music of Wales. In 1985 Elinor was awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship which enabled her to visit Australia to study and report upon the development and provision of Music Therapy. On her return she was influential in pioneering the promotion of Music Therapy in Wales.

 

In 1996 Elinor Bennet was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in recognition of her services to music and also became an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Other Fellowships awarded to her include those from the University of Wales, Cardiff,(2000) and the Welsh College of Music and Drama (2001).