About Lesl

Lesl Harker (pronounced Less’l) is an RIAM-certified Irish traditional music instructor (Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, Ireland) and player of the Irish concert flute. Teaching East Galway style Irish flute for 20+ years, she also serves as a Master for several State Arts Councils' Apprenticeship programs.  

Lesl teaches privately and online, specialiing in happy learners, musical problem-solving, effective practice techniques, and capturing the feel and pulse of old East Galway Irish Traditional Music.

Lesl’s path took her as a child from hearing the Irish uilleann pipes on the radio at age 3, to a “Tonette” at age 7 (similar to an Irish whistle), to listening to folk songs and the Clancy Brothers in NYC, to minstrelsy training at university, a BA degree in education, and then as a professional minstrel, living in England eight years.

Returning to the States, she began flute studies and state arts apprenticeships with the late flute master Mike Rafferty. 

This collaboration lasted for 13 years, during which time she began teaching flute under his tutelage. 

The legendary Harker House music sessions lasted 15 years; Lesl also hosted public sessions and published 2 books of his music, which are now available at amazon.com/author/lesl. For these books she was an award recipient from the international Irish music organization Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

After Mike’s passing, she began various projects to continue his legacy. In 2018 she gave a TEDx talk on the history of East Galway music, and from 2011-2023 presented the public Tunes & Tales of Old East Galway workshop and concert programs, most with uilleann piper Jerry O’Sullivan. 

She is a featured master in the NJ State Arts magazine Passing It On, and by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society.

Her goals are to help learners become the best Irish traditional musicians they can be.