Liath Hollins

Liath comes from a musical family, and played many instruments as she was growing up. But it was the harp that became her abiding passion. "I came to the harp relatively late," she says. "But since plucking my first harp string, I've never looked back."

After teaching herself for a while, she studied with traditional harpist Judith Hudson, and is now an experienced professional harpist and teacher.

"I became a teacher by popular demand," she explains. "There were a few people offering pedal (orchestral) harp lessons in Nottinghamshire, but nobody teaching lever (clarsach) harp. Because I was known as a harpist in the area, I got lots of enquiries about lessons, which I used to direct to the other established harp teachers.

However, several people were quite persistent and I realised that there are lots of potential harpists out there interested in playing traditional music. So I began taking on students and absolutely love teaching them."

"My favourite teaching moment was listening to a student, who six weeks previously had never played any instrument, play me her own version of a folk song which was absolutely beautiful, using harmonies that would never have occurred to me. It was great to see someone really understanding the music and creating something uniquely her own."

Liath teaches all ages and abilities from her home in Nottingham.