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Presenting the King’s Harpist: RWCMD grad Mared Pugh-Evans
Llongyfarchiadau enfawr to Mared Pugh-Evans, the King's Harpist.
Mared Pugh-Evans, the King's Harpist
Llongyfarchiadau enfawr to Mared Pugh-Evans who has just been announced as the King's Harpist.
She becomes the seventh official harpist to His Majesty since he re-created the role in 2000 as Prince of Wales to foster Welsh talent on the harp, the national instrument of Wales.
Mared, who joined the College in 2016, continues a long tradition of royal harpists with links to the College: she succeeds graduates Alis Huws, and Hannah Stone who held the role from 2011. Fellow, graduate and artistic director of World Harp Congress 2020, Catrin Finch was the first harpist to hold the re-established tradition.
She graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama with First Class Honours in 2020 and went on to receive her Master of Arts: Performance (First Class) from the Royal Academy of Music in London.
‘When I first asked for harp lessons at six years old it never crossed my mind that I would become the King’s Harpist.
Receiving this role is a great honour and a great responsibility. I am looking forward to introducing the harp to new and diverse audiences but also sharing my Welsh heritage and language, Cymraeg, with people from across the UK and further afield.
My current community work with Live Music Now, Wigmore Hall's Music for Life, and the City of London Sinfonia, is central to my belief that music is for everyone, that each person can participate in music-making and that music can help uplift, support and bring joy to every life.
As co-founder of Music in Hospices I have seen first-hand the pleasure and peace that music can bring to people in the most difficult circumstances.’Mared Pugh-EvansKing’s Harpist
While she was at College she won the 2019 RWCMD Mansel Thomas Prize, the 2019 RWCMD McGrenery Prize for Chamber Music, and the prestigious Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize for most outstanding instrumentalist in 2020.
Mared, who is a fluent Welsh speaker, has won numerous awards for her playing on both national and international stage and has performed with the likes of the London Concert Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall, and was proud to make her solo debut with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra under the baton of composer Patrick Hawes at a sold out Norwich Cathedral.
She is a freelance musician based in London and works with the Music for Life programme at Wigmore Hall and Live Music Now in London and the South East. Mared is also co-founder of Music in Hospices which was recently longlisted for the Deutsche Bank Creative Entrepreneurship Awards 2024.
She is no stranger to performing for royalty, performing for the former Prince of Wales' 70th Birthday Tour, as well as at the St David's Day Reception for International Dignitaries on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the 20th Anniversary of the National Assembly of Wales.
Her first performance in her new position as King’s Harpist will be on 11th July at the Senedd, Cardiff.
