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All Music Guide:
The 18th century Welsh triple, a fully chromatic instrument with three rows of strings, has been transformed into an instrument of beauty by Liverpool-born and Wales-based harper Robin Huw Bowen. A former member of traditional Welsh band, Mabsant, Bowen has continued to weave his multi-stringed melodies as a soloist and with the duo, Cusan Tan, featuring Ann Morgan Jones (vocals, flute) and Sue Jones (harmony vocals). Bowen is the youngest of three triple-harp-playing brothers. His older brothers, Dafydd and Gwyndaf Roberts, played the instrument with the traditional group, ArLog. In addition to what he learned from his brothers, Bowen studied with influential gypsy harp player Nansi Richard. His first opportunity to show what he had learned came in 1986 when he joined the traditional band, Mabsant. Bowen remained with the group for two years, recording one album, Trwy'r Weiar, in 1987. Much of Bowen's repertoire was collected while he was supplementing his income as a musician by working at the Welsh National Library. After discovering a treasure-trove of ancient Welsh tunes, he opened a press, Gwasg Teires (Triple Harp Press) to publish them. A collection of 200 horn pipes was published as Tro Llaw.
Wikipedia:
Robin Huw Bowen is a player of the Welsh Triple Harp, known in Welsh as Telyn Deires (English: Three-row Harp), and is recognised internationally as the leading exponent of the instrument. He was awarded the Glyndŵr Award in 2000.
Born into the Welsh community in Liverpool, England into a family originally from Anglesey, Robin learned to play the simple Celtic Harp while at school, inspired by the Breton harper, Alan Stivell. In 1979 he received a degree in Welsh Language and Literature from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
He was first exposed to the more complicated Welsh Triple Harp by two members of the Welsh traditional music group Ar Log, brothers Dafydd and Gwyndaf Roberts. They had learned to play the instrument from Nansi Richards, one of the last truly traditional Welsh folk harpists from the previous generation, and the very last to still play the Welsh Triple harp in the correct traditional manner.
Although he regularly performs as a soloist, Robin joined the Welsh traditional group Mabsant in 1986 and later joined Cusan Tân. Since 1998 he has been a member of the Welsh 'super-group' Crasdant. In 2004 he and four other Triple Harpists formed Rhes Ganol, the very first Welsh Triple Harp 'Choir' to exist since that of Llanover Court during its heyday at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Robin Huw Bowen worked for many years at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. While there he discovered several old collections of Welsh tunes and arrangements for harp, some of which have since been published either by the Library or by his own music publishing company, Gwasg Teires. His research has also drawn on living sources, in particular the harpist Eldra Jarman (great granddaughter of John Roberts ('Telynor Cymru') the last exponent of the true Welsh Gypsy harping tradition.
