Kirsty
Whatley is a specialist early harp player. She studied music at
Manchester University, achieving firsts at both Bachelors and
Masters levels whilst learning modern harp with Eira Lynn Jones.
During this time she became increasingly frustrated with the
stereotypical “fluffy” image of the harp and was drawn initially to
the works of twentieth century composers such as Britten, Hindemith
and Berio who, in their different ways, managed to trancsend and
subvert this image. However, her interest in exploring the different
facets of the harp led her logically to the instruments of earlier
centuries and to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis - Europe’s leading
conservatoire for early music - where she studied harp with Heidrun
Rosenszweig and continuo with Nicola Cumer. Kirsty now has a growing
collection of instruments and is increasingly in demand as a player
of gothic harp, baroque triple harp and early 19th century pedal
harp.
Kirsty’s gothic harp was built by Simon Capp, and is a
reconstruction of an instrument from the late fifteenth century, now
in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremburg.
Kirsty
Whatley is a specialist early harp player. She studied music at
Manchester University, achieving firsts at both Bachelors and
Masters levels whilst learning modern harp with Eira Lynn Jones.
During this time she became increasingly frustrated with the
stereotypical “fluffy” image of the harp and was drawn initially to
the works of twentieth century composers such as Britten, Hindemith
and Berio who, in their different ways, managed to trancsend and
subvert this image. However, her interest in exploring the different
facets of the harp led her logically to the instruments of earlier
centuries and to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis - Europe’s leading
conservatoire for early music - where she studied harp with Heidrun
Rosenszweig and continuo with Nicola Cumer. Kirsty now has a growing
collection of instruments and is increasingly in demand as a player
of gothic harp, baroque triple harp and early 19th century pedal
harp.