The Belfast Harp Orchestra Legacy with Janet Harbison

As part of the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2026 lecture series, Janet Harbison, the Belfast Harp Orchestra founder and director, presents an illustrated lecture with with film clips, chat and performances.

The Belfast Harp Orchestra (BHO) were a stage troupe of 20+ harpers aged mostly from 10 – 17 years mainly from Ulster counties and both religious/political traditions in Northern Ireland. Trained through the medium of traditional Irish music (the oral/aural tradition), they took the traditional harp to the international stage. Key achievements include touring with the Chieftains (with whom they performed at the world’s top venues in London (The Barbican and Royal Festival Hall), Washington DC (Kennedy Centre), and New York (Carnegie Hall) and for their collaboration The Celtic Harp album, they won a Grammy Award (1993).

Over the ten years of its existence, the Belfast Harp Orchestra graduated over 100 harpers – a high percentage of whom progressed on to professional musicianship as stage and studio traditional harp performers, corporate entertainers, church and ceremonial musicians, palliative therapists and teachers. Among the graduates are Michael Rooney, Grainne Hambly, Deirdre Macklin & Lucy Kerr.

Janet Harbison – a Dubliner with a strong Ulster background – was shaped in the Cultúrlann, Monkstown, for a life dedicated to music and traditional harping. Her interest in the Bunting harp music collection of 1792 brought her to Belfast in 1984 and finding that the harp was almost non-existent in Northern Ireland, set about teaching and launched the Belfast Harp Orchestra in 1992. Early collaborations with the Chieftains brought the orchestra to the world’s top venues and their collaborative album The Celtic Harp won a Grammy in 1993.

Many concerts, tours, albums, TV specials and awards later, and then, after fourteen years as director of the Irish Harp Centre in Castleconnell, County Limerick, Janet returned to Ulster in 2026 as Visiting Professor of Music at Ulster University. She is currently completing a history of the Belfast Harp Orchestra at TU Dublin.