Sixth Form Harpist wins place in National Youth Orchestra

Katharine Platt in Year 13 will certainly be celebrating after surviving a gruelling series of auditions to be offered a rare and precious place to play the harp with the National Youth Orchestra. As well as participating in four orchestral pieces, during the audition Katharine had to perform two solo pieces of ten minutes duration which she says, was "absolutely terrifying, but at least the hard part is now over!"

Katharine has been playing the harp for eight years, and the concert harp for four. With performances under her belt already at such prestigious venues as Guildford Cathedral, the Barbican and La Grande Arche in Paris, and having already performed as a soloist on more than one occasion at the Royal Albert Hall, she is more excited than nervous about joining the 160 musicians in the NYO, all aged under twenty.

The first of her four residential courses takes place during the Christmas holidays in Liverpool and Blackpool and will culminate in a New Year performance at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Another highlight of the year is the BBC Proms in August, where the NYO perform their own televised concert.

Despite her musical accomplishments, Katharine appears to have her feet firmly fixed on the ground. She says, “I hope to carry on playing the harp after the Sixth Form, but I plan to go to University to study Philosophy and Psychology. We will see where it leads.”