Sarah Deere-Jones is a classically trained harpist with a huge variety of musical experience and interests. Whilst still performing on concert harp, she has in recent years been concentrating on traditional music, playing Celtic, English and her own compositions for gut strung and wire strung Celtic harps. She is known for her virtuoso playing on lever harp and her compositions are sold to harpists all over the world, and she is also in demand as a teacher and performer at harp festivals and for on-line coaching internationally.

left - the cover of Sarah's acclaimed CD Soirbheas (Fairwind) For Celtic and Aeolian harps which was named 'classic FM CD of the year' in 2006.

Sarah started her professional life after leaving the Royal Academy of music where she was a prize winner and gained her LRAM and LGSM performance diplomas and played with orchestras such as the Bournemouth symphony, BBC symphony, Tenerife Symphony, Ulster orchestra as well as theatre orchestras such as Festival Ballet, Ballet Rambert, Bolshoi ballet and the English music theatre orchestra at the Aldeburgh festival. She also performed solo recitals at arts clubs across the UK, and on television and radio.

In 1997 Sarah began to explore the medieval music repertoire with a view to arranging some songs and instrumentals with her husband Phil, who had since become obsessed by medieval bagpipes, like you do. This lead to them discovering other instruments such as the Hurdy Gurdy, bowed psaltery and hammered dulcimer, and they have since regularly performed for the National Trust and English Heritage all over the country. They have both been involved with research into the medieval history of the harp and bagpipe in England, their duo Lammas (see seperate website www.trehawsa.com) and more information about the history of the harp in England can be reached on the history page of this website!

Sarah is director of the Cornwall Harp Centre where she coaches harp students from all over the world, in both classical and traditional techniques. She is fascinated by psychology and the learning process and believes that it is as much about confidence and self belief than about playing the instrument itself. As someone who sufferred dreadfully from nerves and self doubt as a student, she is well placed to understand the problems of nervous learners. Her courses have proved to be immensely popular and she has 'on-line' students from all over the world.

Sarah plays as a duo with her husband Phil who plays Guitar, Gazuki, Cittern, Smallpipes and concertina - their repertoire is based in English traditional music but includes Celtic music, original pieces, jazz and nostalgic songs as well as her acclaimed song settings of some of the poems by Thomas Hardy. They have performed at music festivals, Arts centres and Folk clubs across the UK, and Sarah also holds harp workshops for complete beginners.

http://www.trehawsa.com/acousticconcerts.htm