Maria Christina Cleary

harp

Native of Ireland, Maria holds degrees from Dublin (ARIAM: Teaching Diploma), London (LTCL: Performance Diploma), Den Haag (UM: Soloist Degree, AKM: Masters in Chamber Music) and Bruxelles (Masters in Performance). She studied harp primarily with Susanna Mildonian and Andrew Lawrence-King.

She has been prize winner at the following competitions as soloist: Utrecht Early Music Competition in 1997 (First Prize ex-aequo), Nippon International Harp Competition in 1996 (sixth prize), Dutch National Harp Competition in 1997 (second prize). She has participated at the International Harp Competitions in Israel, Geneve, Bruxelles and Madrid.

As an orchestral player she has worked as Principal Harpist in the Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam and further held the position of Harpist at the RTE Concert Orchestra Ireland and worked in numerous orchestras in The Netherlands and Germany. Maria was the harpist of MusikFabrik Koln, a contemporary music ensemble for five years and also worked with Remix Ensemble Porto and Ensemble Prometheus Belgium. She has premiered more than 30 new pieces for ensemble.

As soloist she has premiered pieces by D. Dennehy, J. Friedlin, R. Ayres, R. Sims, F. Devresse. With Peter Veale (oboe) she premiered Arc Song by T. Hosakawa at Darmstadt Festival in 2002.

In 2006, she performed Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp with Portland Baroque Orchestra and Arion Ensemble Montreal to great acclaim. Her own group, Arparla, a violin/harp duo, has performed in throughout Europe and Japan and is recording a CD of music by Louis Spohr in 2007, which will be the first CD of his music on original instruments.

Maria has been guest teacher at the Koninklijk Conservatorium The Hague, The Guildhall School of Music London and currently holds a teaching post at the Conservatory of Music in Padua.

Back to Musician Index

Sarasa contact info
Webmaster: webmaster@sarasamusic.org