CLAIRE Jones, the official harpist to the Prince of Wales between 2007 and 2011, returns to Llandeilo Music Festival next month – ten years after performing there as a violinist.

She will be appearing at St Teilo’s Church on Monday, July 15, at 7.30pm.

Pembrokeshire-born Claire began her musical education at the age of seven before continuing to study the harp at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2007, Claire was appointed official harpist to the Prince of Wales and regularly performs for the Royal Family and distinguished guests at the royal palaces.

Claire made her concerto debut with the Philharmonia in 2008, and has gone on to perform with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the English Chamber, Zurich Chamber and Maestro Gergiev with the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet.

In 2010, Claire performed the private premiere of the Highgrove Suite , a work written by Patrick Hawes in celebration of Prince Charles’ Foundation for Children and the Arts.

The album was released by Classic FM to great acclaim, with the recital featuring in a major BBC2 documentary on Highgrove House.

In April 2011 she performed for the- newly married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at their wedding reception in Buckingham Palace.

Returning to the festival for the first time in a decade, Claire will be partnered by her percussionist/composer husband, Chris Marshall in a programme which will include some of the pieces from the innovative and brilliant CD which they have just issued together, including Saint-Saens’s Carnival of the Animals, Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide and the world premiere of Chris Marshall’s new work, The Teifi Suite.

See llandeilomusicfestival.org.uk for more infomation.

For tickets call 01558 822410/01269 594303 or TIC hotline 01267 231557.