We’re talking with featured performers leading up to this summer’s One Harp World (OHW), a joint conference organized by the American Harp Society (AHS) and World Harp Congress (WHC). It takes place July 28–Aug 3, 2026, in Toronto.
This month, we’re featuring Ben Creighton Griffiths, who is performing with his band Chube during the chamber orchestra concerto night on July 29 to premiere his new jazz fusion work for amplified harp, bass, and drums and chamber orchestra. Creighton Griffiths is a harpist and bandleader based in Wales. He tours extensively as a soloist and with his bands, with a focus on jazz and improvised music. We caught up with Creighton Griffiths to learn more about his upcoming performance at OHW.
Tell us about the new concerto you composed for amplified harp, bass, and drums for your band Chube to premiere at the chamber orchestra concerto night.
This new work is really exciting for me to present at One Harp World. I have very much enjoyed performing my Concerto for Jazz Harp and Symphony Orchestra over the last few years, and I thought the only thing that would be more fun than that would be to invite some of my jazz colleagues along to add into the mix. Chube is a project where I draw whatever musical inspirations that I like and put them together, and the concerto is no exception. With Chube it’s all about groove, soundscaping, and really bringing out a lot of funky (and probably loud) vibes. There are elements there from funk and disco, rock and metal, and also folk and world music (particularly Latin music), tied together with extensive improvisation from all three of us in the band. Originally I was going to also be playing keys and synths in this piece as I usually do in Chube performances, but I decided to focus purely on the harp for this one.
What do you like about this concerto? What can we listen for during the performance?
For me this is all about the interplay between musicians—both within Chube and then also in the orchestra. I also like what I always like about our work—that it’s unapologetically loud, groovy, and pretty radically different from what anyone would expect from a harp.
[What to listen for is] really up to the audience members. You could focus on identifying the genre/style inspirations, you could focus on the improvisations from the band, or you could focus on the orchestral interplay. Or something else entirely! Chube is very much what you make it, and I’ll be interested to see what harpists do in fact make of it.
What was the impetus for starting Chube, and what drew you to jazz fusion?
Chube was born out of a desire to have a project where I could just do pretty much anything musical with no genre or programming limits. Originally I started this project with my best friend Matt Williams (percussion) at the pub one evening. When I originally branched out to jazz being my main focus of work, I wanted something separate from the trad jazz style, something that would be louder, groovier, and that would bring in elements of sound manipulation and electronics as well. We take inspiration from across all genres and then combine improvisations with fully scripted music.
The lineup of the band changed when we resumed after Covid—Matt remains on as our engineer for all our recordings so that the sound profile has remained constant through our releases. On the bass I have my longtime collaborator Dr. Ashley John Long, [who is] a celebrated modern classical composer and brings huge experience writing and performing across many jazz and classical styles to the band. On the drums we’re joined by Jon Bradford-Jones, who has a particularly deep knowledge of Latin musical styles and grooves, which has been great in expanding our Latin offerings beyond your standard bossa/samba work.
Many conference-goers are looking forward to hearing you perform. Which performances are YOU looking forward to hearing at OHW?
I’m really intrigued by the opening concert focusing on the music of Canada. I’m not at all familiar with many works by Canadian composers, and so a feature like that will be a great opportunity for me to discover something new. Also the concert by Josh Layne and Matt Dupont (“Canada from East to West”) will I think be a really interesting listen. I’ve also not heard Matt or Josh play in person so I’m keen to be there.
OHW brings together a diverse range of harpists from around the world. What do you think makes your voice unique in the harp community?
I would say my uniqueness comes from my extensive experiences and collaborations outside of the harp world. For quite a while now I have been spending most of my time out at jazz clubs, festivals, etc. performing alongside and for non-harpists. That’s given me a very different perspective and insight into our instrument—into how it’s perceived by other musicians and audience members outside of our traditional audience, and how I can try to use the harp to bring it to these new audiences in an engaging and non-traditional way.
Tell us about your previous experience at AHS or WHC events.
I’m lucky to have been to many previous events run by the WHC and AHS. I have performed [as a soloist and in chamber ensembles] at four World Harp Congresses: Amsterdam (2008), Vancouver (2011), Hong Kong (2017), and Cardiff (2022). For the AHS, I performed with [my band] the Transatlantic Hot Club at the Orlando National Conference (2024) and also gave a workshop on improvisation. In addition, at all four [WHC] events I worked with my father’s music publications company (Creighton’s Collection) on [the company’s] exhibition stand, which means I’ve seen the business side of the event too which was very interesting for me.
I’ve enjoyed all of my experiences at these prestigious events, and at every single one it’s been lovely to catch up with old friends from around the globe, as well as making new friends and connections and getting the opportunity to visit some of the greatest cities in the world.
To learn more about One Harp World, visit the event website.
