When harp lessons were announced at a school assembly, Mared Pugh-Evans’s hand shot up immediately. She later recalled in an interview that she had always been very well-behaved — it was simply in her nature — but that moment may have been the most mischievous thing she had ever done. Little Mared was six at the time, and her father was the headmaster of her primary school. And that headmaster looked pretty stunned on the podium — perhaps mentally calculating the family budget, since a good harp can easily cost many tens of thousands of pounds. In Mared’s case, however, the investment more than paid off: by eleven she was already proving herself in competitions, and she has since earned numerous awards. The crowning moment came in 2024, when King Charles III appointed her “The King’s Harpist” — a royal position that had been reinstated by the then Prince of Wales in 2000. Back then, it went to Catrin Finch, the very harpist whose concert the young Mared had once listened to in rapt fascination, sparking her own love of the instrument. A “full circle” if ever there was one!

Gareth Glyn

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Sep 8, 2026

Mared Pugh-Evans · Lucerne Festival

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