King Charles III coronation: Harpist Alis Huws prepares for event

The Royal harpist who will play at the King's coronation has described how she can go from working in sheep pens to playing in palaces in the same day.

In Westminster Abbey, Alis Huws, 28, will join the Coronation Orchestra to play Tros y Garreg (Crossing the Stone) by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins.

She started to play the harp at 10, with lessons near her home, a farm in the Banw Valley near Welshpool, Powys. 

Now she divides her time between rural Wales and London.

"I had a day last year when I was at home in mid Wales helping with the sheep and lambs from about six in the morning until lunchtime," she said.

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"Then I hopped on a train to London straight to St James's Palace, after a shower, and spent the whole evening playing in St. James's Palace."

As the Royal harpist, Alis said she played a "very special instrument" - a one-off gold one that was given to the then-Prince of Wales in 2005.

It is this she will play at the coronation.

Alis plays the harp for schoolchildren, mainly in her home county of Powys

"Part of my role is to reflect the relationship between Wales and the King," she said.

"Welsh will be spoken at the event, and a Welsh folk song will be sung.

"I'm a girl from Montgomeryshire through and through, so it's always nice to have that link."

She was taught by the internationally-renowned concert harpist Ieuan Jones at the Royal College of Music, but it was also something constant in her childhood.

"Growing up in mid Wales it's not that unusual to have a harp at home or in the family," Alis added.

"We had my mother's harp in our house. There are four children in the family so one of us was going to learn to play it."

Alis played at the opening of the current term of the Senedd

The former Ysgol Bro Caereinion pupil said before leaving Powys to attend Cardiff's Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama she was a regular performer on Eisteddfod stages, but not on the harp.

"You name it, I did it at an Eisteddfod when I was growing up - singing solo and in choirs, folk dancing, recitals the whole lot," she said.

"But when I think of an Eisteddfod I don't think of the harp, because when I started to learn the harp I could already play the piano and the clarinet so performing on the harp came later."

Now, 18 years after taking it up, Alis will play the gold harp for King Charles III on Saturday.

She said: "I always say 'well I started off because my mum said one of us needs to play the harp, and now it's my job'.

"It was a different journey from the one many people take who fall in love with an instrument as a child and say 'this is the one, this is for me'.

"I still laugh at the fact that I'm a professional harpist because at 15 I never thought I would be, but I guess that's the difference good teachers can make and having someone to look up to."

Alis was appointed to be the royal harpist by the then prince in 2019, and believes playing in the coronation orchestra will be the "pinnacle" of her four years in the role.

She is the sixth person to take on the duty since it was reinstated in 2000.

Giant oven glove? It is what some schoolchildren thought the harp looked like in its case

Being the royal harpist is only one part of Alis's life as a professional musician.

She performs regularly at concerts, weddings and other events and also works on community outreach projects introducing the harp to audiences that may not hear it live otherwise, including in care homes and Powys schools.

Funding allowed her to perform 30 concerts in 30 schools, including a four-day residency at Ysgol Cedewain in Newtown.

At 6ft (1.83m), Alis said her harp made an impact on the children before she even played it.

"They're with me going through the journey of unveiling the harp. Because I've got a couple of covers (on the harp), they say 'it looks like a big oven glove', which it does," she said.

"Some of them like to come up and have a go, some like to try and climb on it which is less fun, a little more stressful for me but they love it."

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