Bev Lee Harling is a multi-genre vocalist, violinist and composer working across performance, theatre, dance, film and opera bringing classical, folk, jazz and found sounds to her projects and collaborations.
RELEASES
BBC6 DJ Gilles Peterson declared her debut album ‘Barefoot In Your Kitchen’ as ‘simply brilliant’ and made it his Album Of The Week in 2012. Bev also enjoyed widespread global radio play for this album as well as her album release in 2022 of ‘Little Anchor’, a musical travelogue exploring motherhood, family and loss and current album “Ploughing The Salt Sea”, hailed by Songlines Magazine as a “gloriously staged slice of theatre”. Bev is signed to independent record label Wahwah45s.
Favourite artist/producer collaborations include Talvin Singh, Netsky, Etherwood, Matty Benbrook, Katharine Blake, Kavus Torabi (Gong), Sophie Barker (Zero 7), The Destroyers, Ruby Colley, Miranda Sex Garden, Frank Moon and the Coleman Brothers.
Bev has been featured on soundtracks for dance-theatre and ballet productions at the Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells, Northern Ballet, and Live from Television Centre BBC 4. She performed live with ballet stars Edward Watson and Wendy Whelan in their show Whelan/Watson: Other Stories at the Royal Opera House and City Centre New York. Most recently Ed Watson (principal dancer at the Royal Ballet) danced to her song ‘Impossible Human’ at Royal Ballet gala’s in Japan in 2023 and 2026.
COMPOSITIONS
Collaborating with composer Frank Moon and choreographer Arthur Pita was a commission Bev received from Sadlers Wells for their production of Ten Sorry Tales, performed in Autumn 2022. and working with composer Frank Moon and Welsh Children’s poet laureate Alex Wharton to create a family ballet with Welsh Ballet, Ballet Cymru in 2024.
Bev’s solo composing credits for 2026 include her first full ballet for Arthur Pita’s new work “Storm Scene” for Ballet Ireland, premiered in Dublin and an interactive installation commissioned by Charleston House, “Cracked” about the lives and mental health issues of the Bloomsbury Group exhibited throughout the Summer.
Bev has also composed several short film scores including the Channel 4 production ‘Thinspiration’, highlighting eating disorders in young women and new feature film “DFL” on independent release in 2027.
PERFORMING
Having toured widely in the USA and Europe with classical chart topping act Mediaeval Baebes, and composed and arranged for the group, Bev was a valued member of the band for 5 years.
Bev’s involvement with the classical music world saw her as vocal soloist for Karl Jenkins’ Stabat Mater in Marbella, Spain with full orchestra and was featured soloist for ‘Bloom Britannia’ composed by “Shout!” founder Orlando Gough for the Barefoot Opera company in 2021.
Other performance highlights have included the London Burlesque Festival, London Jazz Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Glastonbury festival, Secret Garden festival, Shambala festival, Wilton’s Music Hall, The Jazz Cafe and La Scala.
Recent favourite gigs were playing at “Singing With Nightingales” run by Mercury Music Prize nominee, Sam Lee, experiencing the magical highlight of improvising with a wild Nightingale and in July 2024, being commissioned by the Observer Building in Hastings to write a song for the Centenary Celebrations of the building, performing it from the balcony to a light show and fireworks.
Bev is the founder of ‘The Molly Winklers’, a radical Prog Morris dancing side, based in Hastings, fusing traditional folk music and instruments with UK pop and dance bangers – recent highlight for this project was dancing at Jack In The Green Festival in Spring 2026.
Bev’s recent theatre performances include her Arts Council funded one woman show “Ploughing The Salt Sea”, about her Hastings female fishing family heritage in various locations around the UK.
In Autumn 2026, Bev premieres her new Arts Council funded theatre show “Things I Know and Things I Don’t’, collaborating with acclaimed sculptor Leigh Dyer to creating a part wood, part metal tree transforming from stage set into a fully playable musical instrument as Bev explores her real life experiences with her foundry working Dad and his dementia.
“She instantly has us in the palm of her hand” – Theatre Nation
In 2026 Bev was awarded the The English Folk Expo and Music PEI Artist Exchange, a fully funded international program that pairs one English singer-songwriter with one musician from Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, to write, record, and perform new music together in Canada and the UK in 2026/2027.
