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Danielle Perrett has a firmly established career both as a
soloist and as a chamber music player. Something of a prodigy, she gained
diplomas in harp playing whilst still at school and the Royal College of
Music Junior Department just five years after taking up the instrument ,
which she studied with Daphne Boden and later Renata Scheffel-Stein. She can
trace the lineage of her harpist tuition back to several of the great virtuoso
harpist-composers of the 19th century. Danielle has received several awards
from the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Royal Overseas League Harp Prize
and has the distinction of being the first person at Goldsmiths' College,
London University to gain a Master's Degree in Music Performance and Related
Studies. In the course of those studies she chose to have lessons with
pianists Melvyn Tan and Susan Bradshaw whose guidance has proved to be
invaluable in her performances of 18th and early 19th century and of 20th
century harp music respectively. Danielle made her debut recital at the
Purcell Room in 1983, since when she has regularly appeared as a soloist and
in chamber music at all the major London venues, festivals and music clubs
throughout this country and also in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the USA,
Africa, Russia and the Far East. Many new compositions have been written for
her and she has premiered many new works by composers such as Geoffrey
Burgon, Keith Burstein, Roger Steptoe, David Snell and David Gough,
Danielle¹s husband, who is contributing a significant oeuvre of works to the
harp repertoire. |
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Danielle has contributed to scholarly research of
her instrument and its repertoire, and her two period instruments: a
single-action pedal harp of circa 1800 and an Erard Gothic harp of 1841 have
given her practical insights into the Classical and Romantic harp repertoire
which she is rediscovering, editing and performing. Amongst her most
important work has been her rediscovery of works for harp and horn dating
from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in pursuit of which
Danielle, with her horn player associate, Gillian Jones, has scoured
libraries across Europe and the USA. Various arrangements, compositions,
articles and reviews by Danielle have been published, perhaps most notable
amongst which was her bringing to light of the Howells Prelude for harp of
1915 which she gave its public premiere and edited for publication by Stainer
& Bell. In 1993 she released her first CD (on the Meridian label)
entitled Dussek and the Harp which received outstanding reviews and her
subsequent CDs on both period and modern harps including Edmund Rubbra - The
Complete Chamber Music & Songs with Harp (on the ASV label) have also
received great critical acclaim. Danielle has been featured a great deal on all
the major national television and radio stations and international TV and
radio (including an interview in French). Her many radio programmes include
Start the Week, Kaleidoscope, the Today Programme, special programmes on the
Dusseks on Radio 4 together with Loyd Grossman and BBC World Service together
with the Dussek Piano Trio, Woman’s Hour and Outlook and she has been a
special guest and performed live on Classic FM in addition to the frequent
broadcasts of her recordings. Danielle can be seen playing her single-action
harp in the BBC film of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion', whilst the Austen
connection continued with her partnership with the renowned actress Geraldine
McEwan, 1995's Evening Standard Actress of the Year, in a touring programme
of Jane Austen in which Danielle played appropriate music from the period on
her single-action harp. A recording of this was released in 1995 on the
Hodder Headlines audio label. Danielle is a distinguished teacher and her
experience includes Head of the Harp Dept. at the London College of Music
& Media, twenty five years teaching musicianship and harp at the Royal
College of Music Junior Department, teaching music history and analysis to
foundation students at Goldsmiths College, London University and teaching for
Luleia University in Sweden. She works together with students and their
teachers around the world giving workshops and masterclasses including for
World Harp Congresses in Prague, Geneva and Dublin, the Edinburgh
International Harp Festival, Mini-Harp Festival London (which she organised)
and the European Harp Symposium in Lyon. She is a popular adjudicator
including for international competitions and for all instruments and voice -
not just for the harp. Danielle has accreditation in Higher Education
teaching from the Institute of Learning and Teaching and Associate Teacher
status from SEDA. She is a qualified Pilates teacher having trained at the
Pilates Institute in London and has accreditaion in teaching freestyle
fitness yoga. She teaches Pilates for musicians and harpists around the
world. Her innovative work for charity has included staging numerous
Harpathons and harp events as well as having been secretary and now convenor
of the London and South East branch of the Clarsach Society. Through
Harpathons she organised working together with blind people, people with
cerebral palsy and spina bifida and people with learning difficulties. She
sees a large part of her aim as access to and enrichment from wonderful music
for all through the harp and has worked a great deal for education and
outreach programmes through the London Mozart Players and the Hanover Band
for example. As well as examining for Trinity College, London,
Danielle has devised the harp syllabuses, introducing an unprecedented
syllabus for non-pedal harp from Initial Grade to Performer's Certificate. As
a result of this Trinity has published a book called Technical Development
for Harpists produced by Danielle, her husband David Gough and colleague, Dr.
Mike Parker. Danielle and David have also published a number of harp books
through their company Beartramka - well known in the harp world – amongst
which is Lift Off for all harps at elementary level and an innovative volume
of new advanced pieces for lever harp called Lever Harp 2000 including some
of Danielle's original compositions. Her examining has taken her to Ireland,
Singapore, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Malaysia and Japan, where she has
given a number of recital tours with soprano, Charlotte de Rothschild. The
year 2000 saw Danielle achieved a dream of having an innovatory and
stunningly beautiful sounding harp specially built for her by David of
Switzerland. Danielle has taught and given lecture recitals in French and
Italian as well as English. Concerto performances include Mozart’s Flute and
harp Concerto at the Wigmore Hall and in Brighton with period instrument
flautist, Rachel Brown and the Hanover Band, the same concerto on other
occasions with flautist Karin Leitner at the Musikverein, Vienna with the
Vienna Mozart Orchestra and again with Karin Leitner at the Primacial Palace
in Bratislava with the Capella Istrapolitana. She has also performed the same
work with flautist Timothy Kipling at the Palace of Versailles. Danielle holds the livery of the Worshipful
Company of Musicians and is on the executive committee of the Incorporated
Society of Musicians. Dussek and the Harp on Meridian: There is plenty to enjoy in Danielle Perrett's
harp playing. It is vivacious, musically shaped, phrased and paced with
obvious enjoyment and there is a very wide range of dynamic...this recording
has some charming music played with affection and enthusiasm. It is to be
recommended for this as well as for the choice of some unknown
repertoire." RCM Magazine "It is Danielle Perrett's stunning solo harp
playing which offers the deepest insight into Rubbra's serene, pure
writing." BBC Music Magazine |
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