Elizabeth Volpe BlighHarp



Elizabeth Volpé Bligh became the Vancouver Symphony's Principal Harpist in 1982, after six seasons as the Principal Harpist of the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. A graduate of University of Toronto's Bachelor of Music program in 1975, she studied with Judy Loman (Toronto Symphony), Alice Chalifoux (Cleveland Orchestra) and Edna Phillips (Philadelphia Orchestra). She officially retired from the VSO in January of 2018.

Ms. Volpé Bligh's career includes concerto performances with the Grammy-winning VSO and other orchestras, chamber music concerts, movie soundtracks and recordings. She is featured in The Greater Vancouver Album, a collection of works by Michael Conway Baker, and performed his Harp Concerto, written for her and performed with the VSO. Through the years, some comments from reviews include: "one of the best harpists in the world" (Nigel Barbour), "a harpist of great skill" (Ray Chatelin), "achingly lovely playing" (Michael Scott), "ensemble and musicianship was spectacular" (Howard Jang), "very fine playing" (Sebastien Lipman, former harpist of Berlin Philharmonic), "beautiful playing" (Judy Loman), "unparalleled purity and subtlety" - David Gordon Duke, Vancouver Sun, Oct. 29, 2012, "scintillating" - Alexander Varty, Georgia Straight, Oct. 1, 2014.

article by Alex Varty 2015

Many of Elizabeth's students have won awards such as the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, Edith Lando Gifted Youth Scholarship, RCM Medals, and/or have been accepted into the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Aspen Music Festival, the OSM Manulife Competition, YAHS, VSOI, or other top-level music programmes. Many are successful professional harpists. Elizabeth has taught privately and at institutions such as the Vancouver Academy of Music, UBC, and VSO School of Music, teaching students from all over the world. She taught and performed at the International Harp Workshop in Crea, Italy in 2012. She and Gianetta Baril opened a summer program called Canadian International Summer Harp Institute, July 29-August 11, 2012 at the VSO School of Music, with guest teachers Judy Loman and Cristina Braga, then Julia Kay Jamieson. Elizabeth coached and performed at Pacific Rim International Summer Academy (PRISMA) in June, 2014 and was the coach at the VSO Institute at Whistler, BC since its inception in 2014 to her retirement from the VSOI in 2022.

Ms. Volpé Bligh has had articles published in the Teachers' Forum of the American Harp Journal, the New Zealand Harp Association newsletter, the Dutch Harp Bulletin, Harp Spectrum and Harp Column and has given online classes to students at McGill University and Calgary's Mount Royal College Conservatory. She has travelled to give workshops, lessons and master classes in Canada, Italy, the USA, New Zealand and China. Her compositions for solo harp, in the Royal Conservatory of Music and Trinity College London Syllabi, are being taught and performed internationally. She is currently President of the BC Chapter of the American Harp Society / West Coast Harp Society and was the Chair of the World Harp Congress Host Committee in Vancouver in 2011. She was a panellist on Orchestra Auditions and on Preventing Injuries at American Harp Society Conferences and on Editing Orchestra Parts at the World Harp Congress in 2011. In July, 2014, at the 12th World Harp Congress in Sydney, Australia, she premiered a piece for harp and strings by Scott Good which she commissioned with the generous help of the American Harp Society and the West Coast Harp Society, and was a panellist on orchestra playing. She performed Scott Good's piece again with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in April, 2015. She has appeared regularly on the roster of the VSO Chamber Players' concerts. In July, 2017, she played in the opening gala and presented a lecture on editing orchestra parts at the 13th World Harp Congress in Hong Kong. She will be a featured performer and presenter at the New Zealand Harp Festival in 2023.

She has been a judge at various harp competitions such as Kiwanis Festivals, the OSM Standard Life Competition in Montreal and the Harp Division of the Hong Kong International Music Festival held in Fujian District at Fuzhou, China and was an artistic advisor for the Vancouver International Music Competition in 2021.

Outside of music, she is married to Ross Bligh and is the mother of twins, James and Katrina. Past and present hobbies include skiing, sailing, flamenco dancing, and cooking.

Elizabeth's performances in Michael Conway Baker's Harp Concerto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=964TZQWj9SE and Frederick Schipizky's Oboe Quintet can be heard on audio stream at the Canadian Music Centre's web site. http://www.musiccentre.ca/ Her performances with the Lyric Brass Quintet at the American Harp Society Conference in Tacoma, 2010, and her recital at the Sydney World Harp Congress were recorded for the Harp Archives at Brigham Young University. She has a youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZS9CU_3d3xdc7njcSjFXoQ John Armstrong's oboe and harp piece, Càol MacAoidh, written for Elizabeth, is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvIbzpuF_N0&list=PLA4fTz-VY3SMZdbpsMLTGl5sSY8E-V-DM&index=44

Teaching videos by Elizabeth Volpé Bligh

Video of Winter in Vancouver by Elizabeth Volpé Bligh

Video of Fall in Vancouver by Elizabeth Volpé Bligh

Video of The Damselfly and The Downstairs Spider

Video of Dance of the Staggering Baby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8VaH9ONrFc&list=PLA4fTz-VY3SMZdbpsMLTGl5sSY8E-V-DM&index=59

Songs of Nymphs by Marjan Mozetich

CISHI harp quartet 2012 playing Polka by Jacques Press

VSO Waltz of the Flowers

CISHI harp quartet 2014 playing Take Five by Paul Desmond/Jamieson

Peder MacLellan, tuba, Elizabeth Volpé Bligh, harp 2017 VSOIW faculty recital

Elizabeth Volpe-Bligh
NEWS 

2018 - article on my retirement in Harp Column, September-October issue 

2021, Sept. - played in opera Orfeo e Euridice by Gluck with Vancouver Opera, Les Dala conducting

2022, March - played in opera Blond Eckbert by Judith Weir with Vancouver Opera, Les Dala conducting

2022 - Apr. 29 - adjudicated and gave workshop, Sunshine Coast Island Music Festival

2022 - May 19  - gave lecture on fingerings for Harps, Etc. 

2022 - May 28 - performed at Fund-raising concert for CIAMS and LGH, Christ Church Cathedral

2022 - June 4, 1:30 pm performed with Lani Krantz at VSO Day of Music

2022 - June 23-26, played in opera Rusalka by Dvorak at UBC Old Auditorium, Norbert Baxa conducting

2022 - July 17 - online judge for Harp Division of the Hong Kong International Music Festival in Fujian District, Fuzhou, China

- won Best Teacher Award in HK Int'l Music Festival in 2021

2022 - Dec. 9 and 10 solos and accompaniment for Amabilis Singers

2023 - Feb. 3-6 Auckland, NZ - featured performer and presenter, NZ Harp Festival

Harpfest New Zealand 2023