Biography

Leah Jorgensen is a Scottish traditional harpist (clàrsach) based in Scotland, though her accent still gives away her Texas roots. Drawn across the Atlantic by the haunting beauty of Scottish music, she traded barbecue and big skies for misty glens and ancient melodies.
 

Her path to Scotland has been anything but ordinary. Leah spent more than three decades performing professionally in the United States across orchestral, theatre, sacred, and festival stages. She's been seen on the stages of the Country Playhouse, McGonigel's Mucky Duck, The Grand Opera House in Galveston, Texas Renaissance Festival, and Sherwood Forest Faire and Celtic Festival. She has performed for Lady Margaret Thatcher, conducted under John Rutter, performed with the band Kansas and sang backup to Lee Greenwood. Over time, however, she found herself increasingly drawn to the sound world of Celtic and Scottish music—the rhythms, colours, and ornamentation that make the clàrsach tradition so distinctive. What began as curiosity gradually became a calling.
 

In 2020, the pipes had been calling long enough, and Leah made the bold decision to redirect her musical career toward Scottish traditional harp. Determined to learn the tradition properly rather than from afar, she began focused study in traditional repertoire and style. Two years later, she took an even bigger leap: she packed up her life, sold her house, moved to Scotland with her dog while six months pregnant, and committed to building both her musical career and her family life in the country whose music had captured her imagination.

​

Today, Leah balances motherhood with an active musical life, often joking that her Scottish son has been hearing clàrsach tunes since before he was born.

​

Since settling in Glasgow, she has been steadily building her place within Scotland’s traditional music community. You might find her performing at local events, teaching workshops, attending traditional sessions, or playing her harp on the streets of Glasgow city centre where curious listeners often stop to hear.

​

Leah is also an active member of Scotland’s harp community through The Clàrsach Society, where she has contributed both as a performer and as a volunteer supporting the organisation’s work. She continues to develop original arrangements of traditional Scottish tunes and enjoys sharing them with other harpists through workshops and collaborations.

​

Alongside her musical work, Leah is (slowly) learning Scottish Gaelic to deepen her understanding of the cultural and linguistic roots of the music she performs. She regularly attends Gaelic community events in Glasgow and proudly takes her son along to Gaelic Bookbug sessions—passing on a love of Scottish culture to the next generation.

​

Whether performing in a concert setting, teaching fellow musicians, or playing for passers-by on a busy street corner, Leah brings warmth, curiosity, and enthusiasm to the music she loves. A Texan by birth but a harpist of Scotland by choice, she is dedicated to sharing the timeless voice of the clàrsach with audiences both in Scotland and beyond.