Elizabeth Bass is an international award-winning harpist based in the U.K, with a reputation spanning the breadth of London’s various musical scenes. Elizabeth graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2017 with her First Class Bachelors Degree and has since embraced the variety of settings that playing the harp can take her to, from BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall to pop sessions at Abbey Road Studios. In the Spring of 2022 Elizabeth was appointed Section Principal Harp of the BBC Concert Orchestra - a position she shares with Anne Denholm.
Studying at the Academy with Skaila Kanga - someone who made their mark in all areas of the profession, from major film recordings to Wigmore Hall recitals - further ignited Elizabeth’s love of the eclectic U.K. music scene, and upon graduating Elizabeth quickly took trials with major orchestras, worked with leading contemporary music groups, recorded at all the major London studios and performed for televised gigs with the likes of Quincy Jones and Barry Manilow. Orchestral tours have taken her to New York’s Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and Frankfurt’s Alter Oper.
Elizabeth is very proud to be a member of Her Ensemble, the U.K’s first female and non-binary orchestra. This dynamic ensemble showcases incredible yet underrepresented works by female composers spanning several centuries, as well as working with contemporary artists from various genres.
Despite being busy establishing herself as an ensemble player, Elizabeth has remained dedicated to solo and chamber music and has been an artist on the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme and a 2020 winner of Making Music’s Philip and Dorothy Green Award. These awards have lead her to explore and share exciting programmes of solo harp music at major festivals across the country, as well as performing as a duo partner with Flute and Oboe, and in trios with Viola and Flute.
During both her school and conservatoire years Elizabeth competed in many national and international competitions, studying and memorising hours of repertoire and travelling to the USA, Israel and Wales to compete. Major prizes include the Silver Medal/Second Prize in the USA International Harp Competition (2016), 1st Prize at the North London Camac Harp Competition (2014) and an International Lyon and Healy Award (2013). Elizabeth’s deep commitment to the harp as a solo instrument came from her inspirational teacher as a teenager: the passionate, international prize winning harpist, Eleanor Turner. After graduating from the Academy Elizabeth wanted to refine her technique further and study with some of her favourite artists, with a particular interest in a specific school of French harp playing. Elizabeth therefore studied privately with Sivan Magen in Helsinki and then later at the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, in the world-renowned harp class of Isabelle Moretti.
Elizabeth has a deep interest in the social and cultural role of music, and believes strongly in the importance of music education and the transformational power of exposure to music. These interests have lead her to become an artist for Live Music Now (2018-22), taking the harp into hospitals, care homes and special needs schools; to give workshops for music students at secondary schools, sharing insights into the multifaceted working life of a UK musician, giving efficient practice tools and talking about the psychology of performing; to give workshops on writing for the harp to composition students at universities; to coach young harpists at the National Children’s Orchestra of GB.
Elizabeth teaches the harp privately from her home in Bedford. For teaching enquiries please head to the contact page.