Beyond the Bard

Victoria Davies received a grant to develop new choral music. Today, the traditional singing of ballads, legends, love songs and lullabies is no longer reserved only for the male bard or boys' choir, but also for girls' choirs and the new form of the barbershop quartet: the female a cappella group. Although the harp has traditionally been seen as an instrument played by women, its earliest incarnations actually involve only playing by male musicians, closely linked to the power of lyrics and voice. Modern female a cappella groups seek to reclaim this tradition and the bardic tradition of singing with the harp (in its function as a powerful accompaniment to storytelling, rather than an elegant parlor instrument). To this end, Papagena performs works not only with the modern concert harp, but also with the modern version of the Celtic folk harp, in collaboration with Dutch composers who have a passion for the English choral tradition.

Victoria is a solo, chamber and orchestral harpist. She has worked in the United Kingdom, Thailand and the Netherlands, and toured throughout Europe and Southeast Asia with orchestras and her own chamber groups. She studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music with Skaila Kanga, at Oxford University and at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Erika Waardenburg. She has a particular affinity for choirs and the English choral tradition. She studied music at Christ Church in Oxford and has performed and recorded widely with the famous choirs of Christ Church and Magdalen College for BBC TV and Radio, in concert halls in London and at the Aldeburgh Festival. She is a two-time winner of the London Harp Competition, won 1st prize at the Guy McGrath Harp Competition at the RAM, and was nominated for and won the Harriet Cohen Award in 2005. She has lived in the Netherlands since 2008. She has performed as a soloist with the Bach Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, and at the November Music Festival.