Limetree Music & Arts Festival

Dynamic, jaw-dropping harpist with a difference.

Fiona Katie plays, designs and builds her own harps as well as composing unique music using influences from Celtic, Flamenco and Latin.  She continues to deliver time after time giving show-stopping, foot-tapping performances at both concerts and festivals across the UK.

‘With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes’ (well ankles actually) the effect is a full ‘orchestral’ sound – to be seen to be believed…

Sheer Magic!” – National Trust         “Very impressive”  HRH Prince Charles

“Unique, dynamic harp – like you’ve never heard it before” – Saltaire Festival

“F-K makes her own instruments, out of old industrial shelving and so on…unlike the classic harp they have 3, even 4 sets of strings and are fully chromatic.   But the most amazing thing is the way she plays them using finger and thumb rings to percuss the body of the harp adding additional layers of rhythm with ankle bells.  AMAZING!” – mpika charity concert

“Hard to imagine its just one woman and her harp making that sound” – Jenny Murray Radio 4

“The music is distinctly different, the sound amazing” – Cathy Cillick BBC 1

“Go and see this amazing harper” – Musicians Union

“Phenomenal” – William Hague MP

“All the best” – Guns n Roses

“Fiona-Katie fills the room with a richness of sound you’ve never heard before.    Fast and rhythmical, she doesn’t simply pluck the strings, she hammers them, strums, them and drums her fingers on the soundboard.” – Telegraph and Argus

“She has an incredible talent” – The Yorkshire Post

“If anyone revives the popularity of this instrument it will be F-K!” – Grassington Festival

“Lively and captivating is an understatement” – Boston Globe

“Fiona-Katie kept the audience in the vast open space of the Piece Hall enthralled for several hours” – Geraldine Robertson-Brown, Events Officer

“She knew this harp so well that her genius produced sounds and nuances that were brilliant” – Bronte Society

“If you think you’ve heard the harp before … think again” – Mid-Pennine Arts

“I LOVE IT!” – Eira Lyn Jones, Cheethams and RNCM

“Each piece had a story attached to it which she told in a fascinating and humorous way” – Harrogate Advertiser

“Our musical appetites were tempted with something out of the ordinary…when I think of a harp I think of those enormous heavy concert harps costing tens of thousands of pounds each, but these were of middle size and with a sound unlike any others I have heard, delicate filigree in the treble with power in the bass.   Stirring and wild, a heady brew…fascinating and enjoyable” – Manchester Evening News

“IMPRESSIVE” – Nidderdale Festival

“F-K stunned us.  Here is a truly extraordinary performer who from the start had an unprepared audience completely enraptured, not only in her playing but in her introductions, interspersed with anecdotes, poems, letters and historical details about the harp.  Long after the end of the performance there was still a crowd around her as she answered questions, demonstrated and talked about her beloved instrument, late into the night” – Topic Folk Club

Filed under: Acts 2010, Bet Lynch Tent, News, Saturday by Sean