AMY TURK

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Amy Turk is a harpist working throughout the south of England. She has more than a decade of experience performing at high profile concerts, events, functions and wedding ceremonies, and has toured extensively throughout the UK. With a wide range of musical interests, she can play pieces from any genre or time period to suit the special requirements of the occasion.
Amy's fascination with the harp began when she was six years old, and from the age of seven she was fortunate to be taught by the charismatic Ann Hughes-Chamberlain, herself a pupil of the legendary Lily Laskine. From the very beginning, Amy won the hearts of her audiences with her passion and honesty, playing both at intimate gatherings and at large events. During her teens she became a junior scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, and won awards at numerous music festivals.
Amy grew up with a love of a wide variety of music thanks to her parent's record collection, and could be found listening to Grieg or Rachmaninoff as readily as Genesis, Led Zeppelin or Dire Straits. In her teens she became enthralled by transcription, arranging, composition and music technology, and spent much time performing and recording with her brother, drummer/guitarist Ben Turk, in various projects including power metal band Sorcerer’s Spell, and their own duo project Ben & Amy, under which they released two surrealist pop albums, Science (2007) and The New Food To Eat (2009). As a graduate Amy completed a Masters degree with distinction at the Royal Academy of Music, under the tutorship of Karen Vaughan, former co-principal of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Having consolidated her skills at the Academy, Amy now arranges pop, rock, film and video game music for the harp, and explores her fascination of guitar based music by writing percussive contemporary acoustic solo harp works in the style of modern acoustic guitar icons such as Andy McKee and Jon Gomm. Her work is available to view on YouTube.
Notable work and performances include:
Performed at the National Trust Petworth Prom, to an audience of 8000, 26th June 1999 (with the Hindhead Harpists).
Performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, December 2004 (with the Surrey Harp Ensemble (Now the International Harp Ensemble). Programme included a premiere of music arranged for harps by Amy.
Performs regularly as a harpist for Woking Symphony Orchestra, since 2006. Performances with WSO as a soloist include Mozart's Flute and Harp Concerto K299, and Debussy's Danses Sacrèe et Profane.
Selected as the only UK harp finalist for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra competition 2011, performing the Handel Harp Concerto (1st mvt), and excerpts from Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky), and Verdi's La Forza del Destino.
Performed alongside well regarded folk and contemporary acoustic artists including Julie Felix, John Renbourn, Robin Williamson, Thomas Leeb, Trace Bundy, Pierre Bensusan, Jon Gomm and Chris Wood.
A video of Amy performing her transcription of Andy McKee's harp guitar piece Into The Ocean has received over 30,000 views on YouTube to date, and an endorsement from the original artist on Facebook. See the video here.
Performed as a session harpist for various projects, including a Christmas album by comedy duo Amateur Transplants; also consulted, wrote collaboratively and performed in sessions for symphonic metal band Season's End and power metal band Sorcerer's Spell.