Catherine Beynon

Catherine Beynon began playing the harp at the age of eight and shortly afterwards won a scholarship from Surrey County Council to attend the Royal College of Music Junior Department, where she studied with Daphne Boden. She later gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where she continued to study with Boden and also Skaila Kanga. Beynon then completed her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon with Fabrice Pierre, where she was awarded a DENSM with ‘félicitations du jury’ and completed her postgraduate course with two performances of the Alberto Ginastera Harp Concerto.

She is an extremely enthusiastic chamber musician and has performed across Europe and in Japan with numerous distinguished artists such as Quatuor Debussy, François Le Roux and Lindsay String Quartet, as well as with her sister, flautist Emily Beynon.

Beynon has given solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Fairfield Halls and St Martin-in-the-Fields and in September 1997 made her BBC Proms debut in the Proms Chamber Music Series at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Among Beynon’s numerous recordings, Flute Mystery by Fred Jonny Berg, together with Emily Beynon, Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra, was nominated for a 2010 Grammy, while her recording of Debussy’s Deux danses with Emmanuel Krivine and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg was released by Timpani in 2012.

As a concerto soloist, Beynon has performed with the English Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and London Chamber Orchestra. In August 1999, she was appointed principal harp of the Royal Danish Orchestra and, in May 2000, she made Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her distinguished performance in the profession.