Biography
Lauren Scott has distinguished herself as a harpist through her command of multiple instruments across live appearances and recorded work, most frequently the lever harp, also known as the Celtic harp. Composition entered her artistic practice in the late 2010s, at which point she also produced several instructional manuals devoted to the lever harp.
The lever harp first sparked her interest when she encountered one inside an Australian museum; born in that country, she immediately insisted on receiving lessons. Two years after the family relocated to Britain the request was granted. She subsequently pursued formal harp studies at Trinity College of Music in London. Once graduated, she built a thriving independent career as both performer and instructor, appearing as guest principal harpist with leading British ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Additional credits include session work for pop recordings and pit-orchestra duties in West End musical theater productions. Within Britain’s harp circles she held the chair of the United Kingdom Harp Association for five years. She is the author of the two-volume set Adventures for Lever Harp. Explaining her impetus to harpcolumn.com, she noted, “I was chatting to a harp colleague some years back that there was lots of really good new music for lever harp up to about grade 5 standard, but it was hard to find new music for lever harp students who were in the higher grade 5-8 bracket.”
Her compositional activity also launched her recording career with the 2020 release of the debut album Beyond the Horizon on the Avie label. The recording presented original lever-harp pieces shaped by pop, jazz, world folk traditions, and contemporary composers, alongside works by John Cage and Peter Maxwell Davies and a lever-harp arrangement of The Beatles’ Across the Universe. Following a pandemic-related hiatus she returned in 2024 with her second Avie album, Sea of Stars; the same year she was featured on the Prima Facie release Richard Pantcheff: Chamber Music, Vol. 1.
The lever harp first sparked her interest when she encountered one inside an Australian museum; born in that country, she immediately insisted on receiving lessons. Two years after the family relocated to Britain the request was granted. She subsequently pursued formal harp studies at Trinity College of Music in London. Once graduated, she built a thriving independent career as both performer and instructor, appearing as guest principal harpist with leading British ensembles such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Additional credits include session work for pop recordings and pit-orchestra duties in West End musical theater productions. Within Britain’s harp circles she held the chair of the United Kingdom Harp Association for five years. She is the author of the two-volume set Adventures for Lever Harp. Explaining her impetus to harpcolumn.com, she noted, “I was chatting to a harp colleague some years back that there was lots of really good new music for lever harp up to about grade 5 standard, but it was hard to find new music for lever harp students who were in the higher grade 5-8 bracket.”
Her compositional activity also launched her recording career with the 2020 release of the debut album Beyond the Horizon on the Avie label. The recording presented original lever-harp pieces shaped by pop, jazz, world folk traditions, and contemporary composers, alongside works by John Cage and Peter Maxwell Davies and a lever-harp arrangement of The Beatles’ Across the Universe. Following a pandemic-related hiatus she returned in 2024 with her second Avie album, Sea of Stars; the same year she was featured on the Prima Facie release Richard Pantcheff: Chamber Music, Vol. 1.
Albums
Flight of the Angel (Behind the Mask)
2026
After the Storm
2026
Birthplace
2024
Sea of Stars
2024
She moved through the fair
2023
Beyond the Horizon: New Music for Lever Harp
2020
The Sand Song
2017
Singles
Live
