A love story

Harp·E is a labour of love of London-based multi-award winning Dutch designer Joris Beets.

A harpist himself, Joris has already taken the harp world by storm by developing the electric DELTA Harp. This super sleek and award-winning instrument is now being played by both classical and experimental musicians on the world’s biggest stages. It is produced and sold by the harp industry giant SALVI Harps.

While DELTA has achieved many things - from adding a superior bass range to shifting the instrument's reputation - the issue of unaffordable high quality lever harps still remained. Something needed to be done about the most expensive elements of the instrument - the levers. A full set of quality levers comprises of hundreds of intricate metal parts, making the instrument inaccessible for many.

The idea was simple - to reinvent the mechanism and frame construction completely while using the finest quality strings and a state of the art pickup system. These elements make Harp·E a stage ready instrument for a fraction of the price.

In partnership with the Dutch Harp Festival and "Het Leerorkest", an Amsterdam-based NGO providing musical instruments to underprivileged children, Joris' Harp·E team spent months researching the needs of pro musicians, students, harp teachers, schools, and harp technicians.

The challenge was to come up with solutions for the main pain points of traditional harps - they’re expensive, fragile, huge, heavy, inconvenient, and a nightmare to amplify - among many others.

The result - an affordable, flat-packed, self-assembly, electro-acoustic harp that is both extremely durable and lightweight without compromising sound quality or string tension. Harp·E is here for anyone to explore the fun and the magic of the harp.

the team behind the story

  • Joris

    Founder of Joris Beets Design, creator of the Harp·E, on an ongoing mission to innovate the harp and shape its future as an instrument of choice for generations to come. Based in our London design studio.

  • Elise

    Manager Logistics & Customer Care at Harp·E since 2022. Elise has led an army of volunteers assembling hundreds of Harp·E for charity and knows the instrument inside out. She is the day to day manager of our production facility in the Netherlands.

  • Gaby

    Manager Marketing & Communications at Harp·E since 2023. Gabriela is passionate about driving innovation and shattering boundaries within the harp community. She heads up our US base where she focuses on outreach, manages our social media, and delivers customer care.

  • Rahaf

    Designer at Harp·E since 2024. Inspired by her ever-growing interest in harp experimentation, she fulfills both her passions in Harp·E - graphic design and professional harp-playing. Rahaf takes care of all our visual design needs, and heads up our Middle Eastern base.

  • Olav

    Industrial Designer at Joris Beets Design, joined in 2019 as a graduation intern developing the first working prototype of the Harp·E, and ever since his engineering skills are absolutely central to the quality of the Harp·E.

  • David

    Designer at Joris Beets Design since 2016. His eye for detail ensures our products are true objects of desire.

  • Jonas

    Construction Specialist at Harp·E since 2022. Passionate about woodworking, Jonas specializes in the processes of coating and sanding, ensuring each harp meets our high standards. He is expanding his expertise to encompass the entire harp journey.

  • Paul

    Builder at Harp·E since 2023. His long history in woodworking, furniture building, and instrument-making made him a natural addition to our team. Paul is crucial to our research & development process.

  • Victoria

    Collaborator on our building team since 2024. Her passion for education, democratizing music, and learning new skills led her to be drawn by Harp·E's mission. For Victoria, Harp·E is a personal learning project. She is our interim studio manager.

  • Volunteers

    We wouldn't be able to do the projects for charity without our amazing group of volunteers, dedicating a day per week to assembling Harp·E for children in disadvantaged areas, led by our own Elise.

  • Wider contributors

    A group of enthusiasts provide ongoing input to the project.
    For instance the Leerorkest technicians (Jeffry, Rodney, Ron, Stan, Michael), teachers (Iris, Juan and many others), students, their parents and other staff and volunteers.
    Andy, electronics guru at Joris Beets Design perfected first the DELTA and then the Harp·E electronics.
    And the TU Delft provides expertise and great interns.

The Leerorkest story

social & sustainable enterprise

Minimal footprint:
We’ve reduced packaging to the absolute minimum. Harp·Es are packaged in a recycled & recyclable cardboard box. We do not use Styrofoam. The harp is packaged in a way that ensures all parts are well protected inside the carrier bag and cardboard box. Plastic sleeves are re-used. For self-assembly projects with charities and schools, we deliver the individual parts in bulk on pallets in the most efficient way.

High quality, locally produced parts:
Except for the bolts and batteries, all parts are manufactured locally in Europe. The electronics come from London, the strings from Italy, and everything else from the Netherlands. Harp·Es are assembled, packed, and shipped from our studio in Utrecht, Netherlands. We use wood sourced from Ukraine whenever possible to support them in these difficult times.

Social impact:
We assist schools and charities in setting up crowd funding campaigns to train volunteers for DIY assembly. Now they can afford larger quantities of harps than they could ever imagine!