The new FitkinWall show Harpland features three of my harps (electro, Gaelic wire strung and bray harps) while Graham manipulates sound and plays a variety of pedals and FX from stage.  There is a specially commissioned light installation from acclaimed artist Peter Freeman and interviews from migrants into Scotland that I conducted earlier in 2023. We’ve performed all over the … Read More

In the summer of 2016 FITKIN recorded the albums VAMP and VENEER at Peter Gabriel’s beautiful Real World Studios near Bath. We toured and released the new CDs in 2017. The music mixes minimalism and contemporary musics in Fitkin’s irreverential and exuberant fashion.  Combining piano, percussion, guitar, harps (bray, lever and concert harps), and brass section with Bee-Gees style countertenors, the new albums are … Read More

LOST was released in November 2015  www.fitkinwall.com . After a tour to Brussels and Italy FitkinWall performed the new show in the UK at venues including Kings Place, Nottingham Lakeside and at the 2016 Ted-X at London Science Museum.   Ruth performs on 2 harps and Graham on moog synth, red box, fender rhodes and autoharp and features visuals by Ryan Sharpe.   The music and … Read More

In December 2012, in 10 foot of Dolomite snow, Ruth and Graham began work on a new album. The music is a selection of their favourite Christmas carols, rearranged for Concert harp, Bray harp and Gaelic wire strung harp by Graham. Candlelit recitals took place in stately homes and castles throughout Great Britain,  and were introduced by Graham, who traced the history … Read More

Ruth performs Mini Korg in The Will Gregory Moog Ensemble. The band first performed together in 2005 as part of the Bath Festival, recreating some of the ‘Switched on Bach’ arrangements of Wendy Carlos in the Seventies. As one half of Goldfrapp, the keyboard-player and composer Will Gregory is one of the UK’s leading advocates of using synthesizers and electronic instruments to … Read More

In 2008 Ruth toured extensively with the wonderful UK band Goldfrapp in UK, Europe, Australia and USA. She played wire harp, lever harp and keyboard on the tour. Her wire harp is featured on the Goldfrapp album ‘Seventh Tree’.

Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell’s new band has been touring now for nearly 3 years. Last year The Side released their first album, and features Ruth on lever, wire and bray harps, Amy Thatcher on accordion, Louisa Tuck on cello and Kathryn on pipes. Channeling their diverse musical experiences into a powerful new sound The Side stay true to the spirit and essence … Read More

Hitchcock’s The Manxman was given a gala performance as part of 2012 London Film Festival at the Empire Leicester Square. Ruth performed Stephen Horne’s new score  on lever and wire harp, as part of a small ensemble to a rapt audience. Below is a review of the show by ithankyouarthur: ‘This was the final restoration premier for the Hitchcock Nine … Read More

Ockhams Razor are a stunning aerial theatre company who combine circus and visual theatre.  In 2012-13 Ruth toured with the company, performing a new score by Graham Fitkin for lever and wire strung harps and choir. The music is strong and complex, building up rhythmic layers and sinuous textures. ‘dazzling aerial theatre’ The Independent ‘physically thrilling’ The Sunday Times

In April 2012 Ruth performed at the Royal Opera House in Graham Fitkin’s new opera. Graham’s new short opera, Home, commissioned by the ROH for the Linbury Theatre, was premiered in April 2012.  Jasmin Vardimon directed the opera which is scored for two singers (Melanie Pappenheim and Victoria Coupar), three dancers (Luke Borrough, Esteban Fourmi and Aoi Nakamura) and the … Read More

In 2009 Graham Fitkin put together a stellar line-up of players to form a new nine-piece band. The music is fast, loud, with a hint of gypsy bawdiness described by The Guardian as ”a delight that defied all fashionable labels and simply conjured its own whirlygig of ideas with such spontaneity and control.”  Ruth performs with FITKIN on bray harp and lever … Read More

Ruth has performed Steve Reich’s music many times in the last 2 years. She received permission from Reich to perform Piano Phase on harp and has given performances of this at London South Bank QEH, Gateshead Sage, Sound Festival Aberdeen, Cheltenham festival and Tate St Ives.  She also performed Reich’s gigantic work Four Organs in Krakow, alongside Will Gregory, Graham … Read More

One of the early cinema classics, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928) has been hailed a towering masterpiece of silent film and inspired countless generations of filmmakers including Sergio Leone. Now Portishead’s Adrian Utley and Will Gregory of Goldfrapp have created a new score, soundtracking the powerful and moving story of Joan’s trial, imprisonment, torture and … Read More

Ruth’s harp music is featured in theatre company Wildworks spectacular installation in Kensington Palace,  in the Room of Palace Time alongside metal work pieces designed by Boudicca. In this innovative ‘animated exhibition’, set against the backdrop of the magnificent State Apartments, visitors discover the hidden stories of Kensington Palace. Featuring specially commissioned contemporary fashion installations (by leading designers and artists … Read More

The Uncommon Harp is a project involving both performances and commissions, and resulted in Ruth’s first solo album. Ruth is passionate about expanding the repertoire of the small harp and continuing a long tradition of harping in the British Isles.

George Kaplan is the central character in Hitchcock’s film North By Northwest. And yet he doesn’t exist. The idea that George Kaplan existed outside the original film began to fester in composer Graham Fitkin’s mind and inspired a musical and visual performance involving two live musicians and video.

Ruth’s interest in expanding the sound world of the harp has led her to use electronics increasingly in her music. 

In March 2007 Ruth was was one of four solo artists invited to perform in the Wapping Project’s Solo Spotlights series. The series focuses on cutting edge music in the atmospheric setting of London’s Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. Artistic director Rolf Hind curated a series of solo evenings which enabled the performers to shape their own events in a site … Read More

Fellow harpist Rhodri Davies curated an evening of John Cage’s music for harps and other instruments at the BALTIC in Gateshead. Ruth joined Rhodri and harpists from the Royal Northern College of Music and Manchester Harp Ensemble for a performance of Cage’s rarely performed Postcards from Heaven, for 1-20 harps. The piece was written in 1982 and first performed at … Read More

Charles Hazlewood’s All Star Collective, “A sort of avant-garde super group” – The Idler, is an ensemble dedicated to improvisation, featuring artists from across the musical spectrum. Ruth plays alongside musicians including saxophonist Andy Sheppard, Portishead’s Adrian Utley, Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory and conductor Charles Hazlewood, who first assembled the band to play Glastonbury in 2008. They have since played Glastonbury 2010 … Read More

On March 3rd 2012 Ruth performed with Nolwenn Leroy at the major French awards ceremony, Victoires de la Musique in Paris.  Nolwenn was nominated for an award, following on from the success of her new album ‘Bretonne’ (produce by Jon Kelly) which features Ruth’s wire and lever harps. She also plays concert harp on Nolwenn’s album Le Cheshire Cat, produced … Read More

In 2001 Ruth was again installed at the Tate Gallery performing works composed by Graham Fitkin and inspired by the work of Bryan Wynter. The music involved both natural and manufactured sounds, predominantly the sounds of the harp and of water. Sometimes these sources are very evident, and at other times Fitkin’s use of ring modulation and stereo delay alter … Read More

‘If you had to leave your house in a hurry, never to return, what would you take with you? Think carefully, for the decision is a grave one that will have consequences in the topography of your life, past and future. What would you take? Photographs? Letters? Anything that could prove that what you are about to leave did once … Read More

In 2005 Ruth was commissioned by filmmaker Barbara Santi to compose a new score for a documentary film ‘Experiences of a Village Witch’ which explores the life of the only fully business registered witch in the UK, Cassandra Latham.  The film, shot over 5 years, follows Cassandra continuing the ancient role of wise woman in West Cornwall.

The line of totality for the solar eclipse on August 11 1999 at 11.11 hit land first in West Cornwall. Tate St Ives marked this phenomenon by presenting As Dark As Light, a programme of contemporary arts events in which artists were commissioned to make new work in response to the eclipse and to the specific geography and history of … Read More

The Eden Project in Cornwall opened in 2001. Since then Ruth has performed regularly in the huge Warm Temperate Biome. Ruth has created site specific work for solo harp, and has collaborated with other musicians and artists.  

Barbara Hepworth’s monumental sculptures inspired a collaboration in 2005 between Ruth and C-Scape Dance Company. Many of Hepworth’s sculpture’s are smooth, curved works and dinstinctive in their use of strings, creating waves of suspension and counter-tension. These strong forms provided a starting point for choreographer Sally Williams and Ruth, and their new work focuses on flow and movement within a … Read More