Harp Intensive for Ages 15-24

Friday 17 July – Sunday 19 July 2026 

2–5pm on Friday 17 July
10am–5pm on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 July

This exciting new course will help participants develop their harp skills and prepare them for conservatoire with world-class tuition in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.  

You will be taught by internationally renowned professors from Guildhall School, with plenty of individual attention. 

You will take part in a practical, structured series of hands-on harp workshops focused on developing technical and performance skills. You will also work on solo repertoire in a masterclass setting, receiving guidance from the course tutors. Constructive peer feedback and collaborative learning will be central to the experience, helping you grow in confidence. 

We will explore the following questions: 

The course has been developed by Imogen Barford, Charlotte Seale and Keziah Thomas. 

Imogen Barford's busy freelance career has covered an extremely wide range of activities: concerto soloist at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall, London, and at the Aldeburgh Festival; orchestral work with all the major London orchestras (the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, and English Chamber Orchestras) as well as opera (including English National Opera, and Glyndebourne), ballet (including English National Ballet and Ballet Rambert) and film work; extensive chamber music with her own group JEUX and the Endymion Ensemble; contemporary music (Lontano and the London Sinfonietta) and early music on original instruments; plus regular appearances in all the major concert halls, radio and TV broadcasts, recordings and foreign tours. Most recently she toured in Germany and Spain with the London Symphony Orchestra. 

In 2005 she became Head of Harp at Guildhall School. She has taught in the Junior Departments of the Guildhall School, Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, and the Centre for Young Musicians. Imogen has given masterclasses and workshops at the Szymanowski Academy in Poland, at the Espace Camac in Paris, and for Morley Harps in London, for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, the Royal College of Music, the Birmingham Conservatoire and the Purcell School for Young Musicians. In 1994 she was made an honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Music 'for distinguished service to the music profession'. 

Imogen is much in demand as an examiner and adjudicator. She has sat on panels for the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and the Royal Over-Seas League Competition; examined for the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and the Purcell School; been on the audition team for the Schleswig Holstein Festival Summer Academy and the National Youth Orchestra, and adjudicated numerous Music Festivals. Imogen is also a fully qualified teacher of the Alexander Technique. 

Charlotte Seale is Professor of Harp at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Senior and Junior Departments; Royal Academy of Music Senior Department; and the Purcell School of Music 

Charlotte Seale enjoys an international reputation as a renowned teacher and leading exponent of French technique. Her teaching posts have included Trinity College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, Chethams School of Music, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 

She subsequently freelanced in London, and has worked regularly with all the major London orchestras, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English National Ballet, and Ballet Rambert. S  

Charlotte is the only British harpist to have been awarded the Premier Prix with Distinction from the Conservatoire Royale de Bruxelles, where she studied under Mireille Flour, a pupil of Marcel Tournier in Paris. Prior to this she studied with Tina Bonifacio, and afterwards with Edward Witsenburg in The Hague. 

She is currently Professor of Harp at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (Senior and Junior departments), the Royal Academy of Music, and the Purcell School of Music. Charlotte is an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. 

Keziah Thomas is Professor of Harp at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and founder of Retreat to the Harp and Little Harp Social 

Acclaimed by the New York Concert Review as ‘Stupendous…totally original and engaging’, at her Carnegie Hall debut recital, British harpist Keziah Thomas enjoys a reputation of a lively and engaging performer and educator. At the heart of her work is the belief that the power of music is for everyone, a value which drives a diverse freelance career. 

Her previous album Crossing Waves included newly commissioned works by British composers, James Young, Huw Watkins, and Andy Scott and was hailed as an ‘imaginatively programmed, winningly played recital’; by the BBC Music Magazine. 

Keziah is principal harp with the Covent Garden Sinfonia and her work as a chamber musician with the Aoyama Trio and 4 Girls 4 Harps has been described as having ‘Scrupulous attention to the harp’s dynamic and rhythmic possibilities’ by The Times. 

The winner of the London Harp Competition, the Camac Harp Competition and the Contemporary Record Society Performing Artists Competition, Keziah Thomas was taught by Danielle Perrett, Daphne Boden and Alison Nicholls and holds an ARCM diploma and bachelor’s degree from the Royal College of Music and a PG Certificate in Performance Teaching in Higher Education from the Guildhall School.