ARTIST PROFILE:
Siobhán Armstrong

Siobhán Armstrong is an artistic director, academic, passionate educator, and one of Europe’s rare harpists playing pre-1800 repertory on reconstructions of medieval to baroque harps. Siobhán performs and records with vocal soloists and instrumentalists, period-instrument ensembles, orchestras and baroque opera companies in the UK, Ireland, and continental Europe. As founding director of The Historical Harp Society of Ireland, she is spearheading the international rediscovery of Ireland's ancient harp, strung in brass wires. With this instrument she also performs with prominent indigenous Irish singing and piping colleagues. In 2016, Siobhán commissioned the first 3D-laser scan of a music instrument at The National Museum of Ireland. Her PhD (Middlesex, London) has unlocked new information about early Irish harp performance practice. The debut CD of her ensemble, The Irish Consort—Music, Ireland and the Sixteenth Century—has shed light on a neglected century in Irish music, and was an Irish Times international classical-music recordings top-five pick of 2021. Siobhán is Historical Harp professor at the Royal College of Music, London, and an Occasional Lecturer at UCD. She would like to acknowledge the kind support of The Arts Council of Ireland for her work.