Delyth Jenkins: Harpist

Delyth Jenkins is a border girl.

She was born and raised in Oswestry, known as England’s Welshest town. Always proud of her Welsh roots in rural Montgomeryshire, it was only after she moved to Swansea to go to university that those roots really began to pull.

She started to learn Welsh, the language of her family, but which, following the fashion of the time, had skipped a generation. And it was in her early twenties that her interest in Welsh traditional music was awakened, and she started to learn the harp. Unable to find a teacher who specialised in traditional music, she learnt through listening to others and through experimenting. As a result she has developed a style of playing that is very much her own.

Soon after taking up the harp Delyth became a member of the Swansea-based group Cromlech which, under the leadership of Tommy Jenkins (no relation), was one of the pioneering groups in the Welsh folk music revival. And then, with Peter Stacey and Stevie Wishart, she went on to form the highly acclaimed instrumental trio Aberjaber.

Both as a soloist and as a member of various groups, Delyth has toured throughout the UK, in many European countries, and in America.