Catrin Finch

Catrin Anna Finch (born 24 April 1980) is a Welsh harpist, arranger and composer. She was the Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 2000 to 2004 and is Visiting Professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. Finch has given many recitals at different venues throughout the world.

Finch was born in Llanon, Ceredigion, and began learning the harp at the age of six. Her mother is German and her father English, but she is a fluent Welsh speaker. By the age of nine, she had passed her Grade VIII harp examination. She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of ten, becoming the youngest of its members to play at The Proms. She studied harp with Elinor Bennett, who would become her mother-in-law, and later with Skaila Kanga at the Purcell School of Music in London.

During the 1990s, Finch won several competitions for young harpists, including the Nansi Richards Prize and the Blue Riband at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Finch's multi award-winning musical career began In 1999, when she won the Lily Laskine International Harp Competition in France. In 2000, she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York City, subsequently performing at London's Wigmore Hall. She was later appointed Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales, an office reinstated by Charles, Prince of Wales and which had been vacant since the reign of Queen Victoria. She continued in the post from 2000 to 2004.

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