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The Welsh harpist, Catrin Finch, began to study the harp at the age of 6 in her native Wales with Elinor Bennett. At the age of 10 she played at the World Harp Congress in Paris, and at 11 she became the youngest member to perform at a BBC Promenade concert at Royal Albert Hall, as principal harpist of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She began her studies in London at the Purcell School at 16, and then worked with Skaila Kanga at the Royal Academy of Music.
Catrin Finch won the 2000 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, as well as the Princeton University Concerts Prize and the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize. She was also awarded First Prize at the 1999 Lily Laskine International Harp Competition in France, and the Victor Salvi Foundation has provided her with generous sponsorship, including her debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2000, a new Salvi "Aurora" Harp, and a CD. Other honors include the Marisa Robles Harp Prize at the 1999 Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London, and prizes in the Wales National Eisteddfod Festival and World Harp Festival Competitions. Most recently, she won the 2004 Echo Klassik award for Best Crossover Artist in Germany and was nominated for the Classical Brit Awards in the category of Young British Classical Performer, resulting in an appearance on ITV with Bryn Terfel.
From 2000 until 2004 Catrin Finch held the appointment of Royal Harpist to HRH the Prince of Wales. This post, last offered by Queen Victoria in 1871, was revived by the Prince after hearing Catrin at his 50th birthday celebrations in Buckingham Palace.
With orchestra, Catrin Finch has performed with Bryn Terfel and Sinfonia Cymru in Dublin and Birmingham, English Chamber Orchestra, London’s Academy Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, in Bangkok for Thailand’s Princess Galyani Vadhana, Peoria Symphony, Canton Symphony, Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra and Yakima Symphony Orchestra. The Young Concert Artists Series presented her recital debuts in the Young Concert Artists Series at the 92nd Street Y in New York and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. She has also toured the USA in recital.
In 2004 Catrin Finch played a pink electric harp at the 60th birthday celebrations of composer Karl Jenkins. This season (2006-2007), she performs with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Welsh Proms. She gives a recital for Radio France and makes concerto appearances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Mozart Players and James Galway, Sinfonia Cymru, Charlotte Symphony, and Lake Charles Symphony. She also headlines the Peter Jay Sharp Concert at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, performing with YCA violist Antoine Tamestit and YCA alumna flutist Eugenia Zukerman.
Catrin Finch has four CD's currently available: “Catrin Finch Harp Recital”, produced by Egan Records for Salvi Harps, “Carnaval de Venise” published by Sain Records, and “Crossing the Stone”, works arranged and composed by Karl Jenkins and “Catrin Finch: The Harpist”, a disc of classical masterpieces for the harp, both on Sony Classical.
In 2003, Catrin Finch married Hywel Wigley, son of politician Dafydd Wigley and prominent harpist Elinor Bennett, her former teacher. |
