Stephen Fitzpatrick

Stephen Fitzpatrick is principal harpist of the Staatskapelle Berlin, having been elevated to the post by Daniel Barenboim. He is also an important educator. Fitzpatrick is a native of Criccieth, Wales. He took up the piano at age four and added harp studies at age seven. Fitzpatrick attended Ysgol Treferthyr and Ysgol Eifionydd schools, studying the harp with Gwenllian Dwyryd. He attended the Royal College of Music in London, where his harp teacher was Marisa Robles; he earned a teaching diploma. Fitzpatrick went on for further studies at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Edward Witsenburg, earning a performance diploma, and also took private lessons with Erika Waardenburg in Amsterdam and Sarah Bullen in Chicago. In the late '90s, Fitzpatrick held principal harp or co-principal harp positions with various orchestras, including the English Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Opera Orchestra in Sweden, where he lived for a time. He also served as a guest principal harpist at the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm. In 2000, he moved to Berlin after being chosen by Barenboim as principal harpist of the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra. He also served as harpist at the Bayreuther Festspiele from 2007 to 2014, often appeared as guest principal harpist with the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, and made freelance appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the La Scala Opera Orchestra in Milan, among other top-level groups. As of the early 2020s, he continued to hold his Staatskapelle position. Fitzpatrick appeared with violinist Cecilia Zilliacus on a 2023 recording of Saint-Saëns' Fantasie in A minor for violin and harp, Op. 124, released on the BIS label. He has long been active as an educator, teaching at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Seville from 2004 to 2011 and since 2010 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2018, he was visiting professor of harp at the Royal College of Music in London.
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