What is the Emerging Artists Scheme?
Each year the UKHA committee selects three soloists or ensembles at the beginning of their careers to take part in a collaborative concert series. With support from the UKHA, these artists will work together to curate, plan and perform nine concerts across the UK. Applications from solo harpists, duos and ensembles who work in any genre, playing all types of harp, are welcome.
2024 Emerging Artists
Tara ViscardiHailing from the Beara Peninsula in the South-West of Ireland, Tara Viscardi is an Irish traditional, baroque and classical harpist. First prize winner of the 2021 London Camac Harp Competition, Tara has performed and recorded in venues including Wigmore Hall, Abbey Road Studios, the Irish Cultural Centre, the London Irish Centre, the Irish Embassy London, Áras an Uachtaráin, the National Concert Hall Dublin, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and Canterbury Cathedral. She has featured at festivals including the 2023 Cairde na Cruite International Festival for Irish Harp, 2020/21/23 Bloomsbury Festivals and the 2021 Harp on Wight International Festival. She was a prize winner in the World Music Competition at the 2023 Wales International Harp Festival as well as a quarter-finalist at the 2022 Dutch Harp Festival World Harp Competition for her project 'Improvise: Past to Present, Across Genres'.
Tara was a recipient of the 2022 Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award, which enabled her to commence studies in the Italian baroque triple harp with Dr Siobhán Armstrong, and was featured at the 14th World Harp Congress, Cardiff performing her original compositions for traditional harp and flute paired with chamber music by 19th and 20th century female composers, generously supported by Culture Ireland. She previously performed at the 13th World Harp Congress, Hong Kong in the Masterclass programme and has performed for notable audiences including HM King Charles and Queen Camilla upon their visit to Ireland, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins and Mrs Sabina Higgins as well as the Taoiseach and Tánaiste upon their visits to London. A graduate of the Royal College of Music London, Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado Milan and TU Dublin Conservatoire, she holds a Master of Music in Performance (Distinction), Postgraduate Diploma in Harp Performance and a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Honours). Passionate about outreach and education, she is Administrator for Irish Heritage UK, the harp teacher at Junior King’s School Canterbury and the harp tutor at the Irish Cultural Centre, London. In 2021, Tara’s early music/folk group Nobody’s Jig held the Wigmore Learning/Royal Academy of Music Fellowship, delivering workshops and performances as part of the Wigmore Learning outreach programme. She is very much looking forward to continuing to explore the exciting possibilities of the Italian baroque triple harp as both a solo and ensemble instrument, uncovering new repertoire and endeavouring to bring unique and creative programmes to wider audiences. |
Eleanor Dunsdon (harp)
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Aura Duo
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Concerts and more information
Concerts between September - December 2024