Elizabeth-Jane Baldry

Music runs through Elizabeth-Jane Baldry’s veins like Brighton through a stick of rock. A harpist with a love of fairies, folklore and home-made marmalade, she ‘absolutely fell in love’ with Devon after studying at Exeter University and has lived in Chagford full time, when not globe trotting to concerts, recitals and festivals, for some 15 years. 

Sat in her book-lined living room, she recalled she wanted to play the harp from a very early age: ‘I remember saying to my Mum when I was about three: “If only I could play the harp!” 

‘If you look around there are images of harps everywhere, from church windows, in fairy tales, to Christmas cards - it’s quite a strong image in our culture - but that sound, it does something to my heart, I just love it.’ 

After university, Elizabeth-Jane was determined to become a professional musician, forging a path in an industry she believes is still ageist and sexist.  

‘To start with there were a few years of cabbage soup, you just have to be prepared to live quietly,’ said Elizabeth-Jane. ‘Many of my fellow musicians from college slowly gave up on their dreams - it’s a tough life, you are often away, you work evenings and weekends, but I’ve stuck with it and I feel I am incredibly lucky to be where I am now. 

Elizabeth-Jane has worked with groups, orchestras and as an individual all over the world, not only playing the harp but composing and arranging original pieces. She also teaches three evenings a week locally. One of the assignments she enjoys most is playing the harp as an accompaniment to silent film. She is the only harpist in the world doing this kind of work - something she finds fascinating, sometimes challenging, but always inspiring. 

‘When you watch these films, what you are seeing is real, not like the digitised productions we are used to now,’ she said. ‘Everything you see is actually happening, which makes it quite exciting. It was a huge industry in the 1920s and they made some absolute masterpieces. 

‘Also, you are seeing landscapes as they were 100 years ago. I’ve just come back from Nuremberg where I played for this incredible film shot in 1919 in Northern France, in the aftermath of the First World War. It’s probably some of the finest footage of what the world looked like then; scenes of cities where the cathedrals were boarded up, people trying to survive, camping out in city squares that are now tourist hotspots where people sit and drink coffee. The social history is amazing.’ 

Generally Elizabeth-Jane will be given a synopsis of a film in advance so she can compose music to match the pictures - but occasionally it can be a case of making it up as she goes along, which, as she admits, at a live performance can be unnerving! 

A history lover, she has been privileged to play recitals in some amazing buildings, from ancient churches to historic country houses. She intersperses her performance with anecdotes and stories about the composers or the music she is playing in an effort to provide a night out to remember. 

She said she can’t imagine a life without music: ‘Even on a day I don’t practise, I play for fun. There’s something in me that needs to feel that sound vibrating through me as I play.’ 

When composing, she is inspired by visual images, particularly when it comes to her silent film work, but sometimes inspiration comes from the unexpected. 

Stuck while working on a saxophone and harp duet, she explained how walking through the site of an ancient Civil War battlefield provided the ideas she was striving for. 

‘There was beautiful wood sorrel in this old place where hundreds of young men lost their lives for no conclusive victory. The loss and dreaminess of those woods in spring somehow matched the sadness of the harp and the slightly militant tone of the saxophone,’ she said. 

Alongside her interest in history, Elizabeth-Jane is passionate about English folklore - all manner of quirky and mystical facts can be learned each day at 4pm on her Old Weird Britain Twitter feed. 

Folklore is also at the root of Chagford Filmmaking Group, founded by Elizabeth-Jane in 2004 and through which nine films have been produced, shot locally and involving local children and actors, all accompanied by music she has composed herself. 

Not surprisingly for a creative person, she loves to cook - her annual marmalade making sessions in February have become a family tradition. 

Another of her passions is trees - she has her own small piece of woodland near Chagford, to where she escapes nearly every day and where she keeps bees. 

‘Caring for my trees is a really big thing for me. A lot of my life is all high heels and lipstick, so it’s wonderful to muck about in nature and talk to my trees,’ she said. 

Jane Honey