So here goes, my first ever blog post! I figured the best way to start would be to introduce myself. My name’s Bethan. I’m a harpist. I have been a harpist for most of my life. In fact, it IS my life. I’ll never forget my first memory of the harp. It was in some church and it was a recital my Dad was doing. Himself on the violin alongside a woman playing the harp. I fell completely in love. It was the sound. If emoji’s existed back then, my face definitely resembled the heart eyes one. It must have been about a year later that I actually started to have harp lessons. I had a wonderful teacher from the start, Thelma Owen. I achieved all eight Grade Exams under her wing. As I went through school, I quickly realised that playing the harp was the thing I was best at. I must have been about twelve years old when I decided I was going to be a harpist. It hasn’t been easy. I didn’t get the grades I needed to get into the Universities I had chosen. I was already off to Trinity College of Music to do the foundation course however, and decided to audition to get a place on the BMus course the following year. Somehow, I managed to get myself a place. It was a four year course, and although I struggled a lot, I did it! There we have a brief(!!) description of my background to becoming a harpist. I will likely come back to it in future posts. Today however, I wanted to describe what life is like as a harpist. The first word that comes to mind?... wonderful.
