SUMMER SCHOOL OF EARLY IRISH HARP
KAREN LOOMIS
Lecturer, Scoil na gCláirseach
Karen’s academic and professional background is in the sciences, with a B.S. in Physics and an M.A. in Astronomy. She has had a lifelong love of music, particularly Irish music, and became interested the history and construction of the early Gaelic harp after first attending Scoil na gCláirseach in 2006. Karen is now a postgraduate student in Musical Instrument Research at the University of Edinburgh, one of the world's foremost centres in this field of study. For her Master’s degree, she is using modern analysis tools to study the Lamont and Queen Mary harps, held in the collections of the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh. This is the first study of its kind conducted on any Gaelic harp. With her research, Karen hopes to advance our understanding of how these instruments were built and played, and is daily motivated in her work by all who seek to recreate their magnificent sound.