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Gráinne Hambly from Claremorris, County Mayo is an internationally recognised exponent of the Irish harp, and is in great demand as a performer and teacher, both in Ireland and abroad. She started to play Irish music on the tin whistle at an early age, before moving on to the concertina and later the harp. She lived in Belfast for six years, where she completed a Masters Degree in Musicology, awarded by Queen’s University (in 1999). Her main research topic was folk music collections and the harp in 18th-century Ireland. She also completed the Graduate Diploma in Education (Music) at the University of Limerick.
She has been playing professionally as a solo musician for the past 8 years, and has performed on various occasions in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Israel and Japan, as well as touring extensively in the United States, giving concerts, workshops and masterclasses. She has also toured and recorded with various artists, including the Belfast Harp Orchestra, Comhaltas Ceoltóirà Eireann and Téada.
She has featured on a number of CDs both as a soloist and accompanist and has also released three critically acclaimed solo Irish harp CDs, Between the Showers (Shamrock Records, 1999), Golden Lights and Green Shadows (Klangwelten Records, 2003) and The Thorn Tree (own label, 2006), and two books of harp arrangements.
For more info, and to buy her CDs and books see www.grainnehambly.com
"…a dazzling, rhythmically complex performance showcasing her unique playing style, an artful balance of power and finesse."
–IrishPhiladelphia.com
"…Grainne Hambly has to be among my favorite harp players in Ireland today… a tasteful player and a great interpreter of both the old harp repertoire and the traditional dance music of Ireland."
–Philippe Varlet at CelticGrooves Imports
"Her harp playing is always refreshing, uncluttered and genuine, speaking to the heart of the music."
–The Celtic Harp Page
"Since touring extensively throughout the United States for the past nine years, Gráinne Hambly has not only garnered an ever-growing following of devoted harp enthusiasts but has managed to cross over and capture the Irish music fan with the taste for the fast, driving reels and jigs of traditional music. She has broken the genteel parlor image and elevated the stature of the harp right up there with the fiddles and pipes in the realm of dynamic dance music. Add to that the unsurpassed expressive quality the harp has in her hands in the rendition of age-old airs and laments and you have the masterful performance of an experienced and renowned player."
