Anne Denholm is one of the leading British harpists of her generation and is earning a strong reputation for her interpretations and powerful performances across a variety of musical fields.
In May 2022 Anne was appointed Section Principal Harp with the BBC Concert Orchestra, a post she shares with Elizabeth Bass. Orchestral playing has been at the centre of Anne’s love for music since she attended her first county music ensemble courses as a child. Since then she has enjoyed working with orchestras and choirs across the U.K., including the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, English National Opera, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. She has recorded for CDs with The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge, Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir, The Temple Church Choir and The Carice Singers.
Anne is increasingly in demand as an interpreter and performer of new music; she has been recording and premiering new works for solo harp since 2006. She is a founding member of award-winning contemporary experimental quartet, The Hermes Experiment, winners of the 2019 Royal Overseas League Mixed Ensemble Competition and winners of the 2021 Royal Philharmonic Awards Young Artists category. Their debut album, HERE WE ARE, was released on Delphian Records in 2020 to great critical acclaim, including winning a Presto Classical Recordings of the Year award and their second album, SONG, was released in Autumn 2021. She has also worked with Mahogany Opera, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and UPROAR Ensemble.
As a soloist, Anne served as Official Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales from 2015-2019, and has given regular solo recitals across the U.K. and further afield, from music clubs and societies to international harp festivals. Highlights include a trip to Bangkok for the Third Thailand International Harp Festival, two performances at the Wales International Harp Festival, and travelling to Bogotá, Colombia to give two recitals and a workshop. She has given concerto performances with the London Mozart Players and the London Chamber Orchestra.
In addition to performing, Anne is passionate about using music in community and education contexts. She has been practising in this field since 2008, when she first started training with the Purcell School’s award-winning IMPULSE music education group. Since then, she has worked with a variety of learning and participation schemes and also worked as a solo harpist with Live Music Now in Wales and England. Recently, Anne directed The Hermes Experiment’s SONG Virtual Composition Project for state secondary schools in London.
Anne is a dedicated teacher, giving private lessons in addition to holding the position of Harp Teacher at Eton College, Windsor and the Dragon School, Oxford. She also thoroughly enjoys working as a Harp Tutor with the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Anne underwent a British musical upbringing, studying at the Junior Department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, the Purcell School, Newnham College Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London. She received her Master’s from the RAM with distinction, studying under Karen Vaughan and graduating with the Renata Scheffel-Stein Harp Prize and a Regency Award for notable achievement. Whilst at the RAM she was the first ever harpist to win the historic RAM Club Prize. In 2019 she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM).
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