Two Moors Festival interview: Eleanor Turner

8th October 2013

Categories: Visitor News

“Fantastic chamber performances in stunning Devon locations”
The Two Moors Festival is a twelve-day music event, with performances across beautiful Exmoor and Dartmoor and concertgoers travelling from around the world to hear musicians both established and emerging. Official Devon spoke to internationally celebrated harpist Eleanor Turner, who will be performing at the 2013 festival (October 16-27) for the fourth year.

Find out more about the Two Moors Festival and other Devon music festivals
Find places to stay on Dartmoor and places to stay on Exmoor

Harpist and composer Eleanor Turner’s unique and passionate performances in both classical and contemporary styles have won her international acclaim – and lots of awards. As a soloist she won the Royal Over-Seas League Award for Strings and Marisa Robles Harp Prize (2002), second prize in the Wales International Harp Competition (2006), first prize in the Cardiff European Harp Competition (2007), and third prize in the Netherlands International Harp Competition (2010). As a composer Eleanor writes mainly for the harp and for small chamber groups, with notable commissions coming from Ballet Wales and the Park Lane Group.
As part of the Two Moors Festival she will perform at St Andrews Church Hall in Ashburton on October 26. 

You’ve played the harp since the age of 5. What attracted you to it?
I started playing the harp at such a young age because I had become a real pest to my older sister, Annabel, always wanting to play the piano at the same time as her! So, my mother, wanting me to have the chance to learn an instrument of my own and to have the fun of bringing a harp home (her favourite instrument, thanks to her being a Harpo Marx fan!), found out about a harp shop in London, got on the train whilst my sister and I were at school, found the shop, hired a small harp and struggled back home with it.

I didn’t always love the harp like I do now. I tried the violin, cello and piano, considered the bassoon and french horn (whims that fortunately my parents had got wise to and didn’t support!) but eventually knuckled down at the harp and when I got into the National Children’s Orchestra aged 11 everything changed for me and I became increasingly serious about the harp and more and more in love with it.

Now it’s my whole life and I get more obsessed with it every day; it can be therapeutic, exciting, creative and expressive. When playing early harp music it’s a doorway into a fascinating historical world that I love to be in, and when playing new music I love the interaction with composers. I also love playing with my chamber ensembles and sharing my own stories through the composers’ voices. It is my instrument and strange as it sounds, nothing feels more natural to me than playing the harp.

Tell us about your particular sound…
I know that I have a big, rich sound, maybe more than a lot of harpists, and try to create a strong sound that reaches out to people and gets the emotion of the music across – like Itzak Perlman’s magnificent tone on the violin. I love to study music from different periods and one of my favourite sounds is the lighter but immensely characterful, conversational tone of the early 19th century harp. I perform this music a lot in my Dussek Duo and I’m lucky enough to use a beautifully restored early pedal harp by Erard, from 1920, for this music. For me, though, variety is the spice of life and, just like when I was a child wanting to play all the different instruments, on the harp I love to create as many different sounds as possible.

You teach, compose and play. Which do you prefer?
I’m definitely most at home as a player or performer, but love to teach and take it really seriously; helping adults and children enjoy music and develop their skills is a privilege. It can be challenging to combine this with my other work – in particular my composing, my practice and my arranging work, not to mention my two children – and there’s a lot of burning the midnight oil. But I’m so fortunate to have such diversity in my work and thrive off sharing my passion for the harp with my students – it makes me even more excited by the music.

What draws you to the Two Moors Festival in Devon?
It’s thrilling to be part of an established festival that gets better each year and has a strong artistic vision. This year’s ‘Light’ theme really got me thinking about my programme in a new way, and I’m sure it’s provided wonderful food for thought for the other artists, too. It’s even affected the way I’ve been preparing the music, which I could never have anticipated. You can imagine all the performers working away at their repertoire with the same creative ideas at the stem of each concert or talk – that gives the festival a really united feeling.

Tell us about your upcoming performance at the Two Moors Festival …
My concert is called ‘Impressions of Light’ and I’ve chosen a varied repertoire, as I usually do, except that in this case, every piece shows a different quality of light or something revealed by light. I’m playing a Bach Prelude and Fugue that dances across the strings with the lightness of finger touch and the vibrancy of the music – I’m also playing much more modern music, but I want people to know that I have chosen each piece because it’s helping to present the complete picture of every impression of light I could imagine!

Which performances might you try to catch yourself?
All the artists in the festival are incredible, and I’m lucky enough to know many of them personally, but my all-time favourites are O Duo – the percussion duo of Owen Gunnel and Olly Cox. They’re a hoot to watch and so talented as showmen and presenters but when I’ve heard them live, they bring me to tears with their phrasing. They seem to think as one – and my jaw drops open in awe at the way they shimmy around all the instruments, making it so melodic, so funky, so smooth. They’re just phenomenal!

Find out more about the Two Moors Festival and other Devon music festivals
Find places to stay on Dartmoor and places to stay on Exmoor
Find out more about Eleanor Turner