KANGA, SKAILA Skaila Kanga, harp
Born in India, the harpist Skaila Kanga studied as a pianist,
before turning, at the age of seventeen, to the harp, which she studied with
Tina Bonifacio, the harpist in Sir Thomas Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
She began her own professional career with the BBC Concert Orchestra and as
a free-lance player with major regional and London orchestras. Her work as a
soloist has brought concerto performances, broadcasts and commercial recordings
with such artists as Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Elton John, Joan Sutherland,
Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Kiri te Kanawa and with composers such
as John Williams, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, Richard Rodney Bennett and
Michel Legrand. In 1977 she joined with Tommy Reilly to form a harmonica and
harp duo, a collaboration that brought original compositions and recordings
of British folk-songs and popular melodies. Skaila Kanga has also recorded all
the major French chamber works with harp, Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp,
and music by Kreisler and Heifetz with the violinist Xue-Wei. In 1988 she was
appointed Professor of Harp at the Royal Academy of Music and in 1994 was awarded
a fellowship of the Academy.
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