Juliet Fraser

Juliet Fraser is a British soprano, based in London and specialising in new music.

Education

Fraser studied at the Purcell School and at the University of Cambridge, where she read Music and History of Art. Initially an oboist, she began her vocal training at the age of 21, combining private lessons with freelance performing.[1]

Early career

In 2002, Fraser co-founded the vocal group EXAUDI with James Weeks and was Executive Director of the group until 2014. She remains one of the core members. She was a member of the soloists of Collegium Vocale Gent from 2007-2012, performing and recording Renaissance polyphony by Orlande de Lassus,[2] Tomas Luis de Victoria, Carlo Gesualdo and William Byrd. She also sang with British choirs such as Polyphony, Tenebrae, the Monteverdi Choir and BBC Singers.

Contemporary music

Fraser is best known as an interpreter of contemporary classical music. Her repertoire focuses on new works for solo voice, voice and tape/electronics, voice and piano (with duo partner Mark Knoop), and voice and ensemble. She has performed as a soloist with Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Talea, Asko|Schönberg, Remix, We Spoke: New Music Company and Plus-Minus. She is co-director of the recording label all that dust (founded in 2018), alongside Mark Knoop and Newton Armstrong.[3] Fraser is also founder and Artistic Director of eavesdropping, a concert series and symposium that celebrates women in new music.[4]

Collaborations with composers

Notable collaborations have resulted in new works written for Fraser by Matthew Shlomowitz, Andrew Hamilton, Bernhard Lang, Michael Finnissy, Rebecca Saunders and Cassandra Miller. In 2016, she premiered Lang's The Cold Trip, part 2 at MaerzMusik in Berlin and Finnissy's Andersen-Liederkreis at Transit festival in Belgium,[5] both with pianist Mark Knoop.

In the same year, Rebecca Saunders wrote Skin for Fraser and Klangforum Wien; it was premiered at the Donaueschingen Festival and performed again at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Fraser was described as sounding "positively alien at various points, adding unsettling frissons to our perception of the nature of the voice".[6] The premiere recording of this work appears on the Donaueschingen-released recording from that year.[7] Fraser also gave the world premiere of O Yes & I with flautist Helen Bledsoe at the Louth Contemporary Music Festival in June 2018,[8] the UK premiere of O for solo voice in BBC Radio 3's 'Open Ear' series in September 2018, and the UK premiere of Yes with Ensemble Musikfabrik at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival[9].

Since 2016 she has been collaborating with Canadian composer Cassandra Miller, resulting in an ongoing and modular series of compositions called Tracery. This project had its first outing at Cafe Oto[10] and subsequent iterations have been programmed by Experimental Sound Studio[11] Chicago, Klangspuren in Schwaz[12] and Bastard Assignments.[13]

Recordings

Her 2016 recording of Morton Feldman's Three Voices appears on Hat Hut Records.[14][15] The album was nominated for a Schallplattenkritik prize. In 2017 she released a recording with pianist Mark Knoop of Bernhard Lang's The Cold Trip, part 2, a "reimagined Winterreise", on Kairos.[16] 2018 saw releases of Andrew Hamilton's[17] To The People (with percussionist Maxime Echardour) on NMC,[18] Michael Finnissy (the above-mentioned Andersen-Liederkreis) on Hat Hut and a download-only binaural recording of Milton Babbitt's Philomel[19] on all that dust.

References
  1. "Ditching the pudding". The Times. 2006-12-15. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  2. "Lassus: Cantiones Sacrae; Collegium Vocale Gent/Herreweghe". Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  3. "Central Nodes • VAN Magazine". VAN Magazine. 2018-08-10. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  4. "eavesdropping.london". Eavesdropping.london. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  5. "Finnissy". Festival2021.be. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  6. "Rebecca Saunders - Skin (UK Première) - 5:4". 5:4. 2018-03-31. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  7. "Donaueschinger Musiktage 2016 - Neos: NEOS1171617 - 2 SACDs or download | Presto Classical". Prestoclassical.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  8. Molleson, Kate (2018-06-25). "Book of Hours review – tender minimalism to restless bravura". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  9. 5:4 (2018-11-17). "HCMF 2018: Ensemble Musikfabrik, Christian Marclay: To be continued". 5:4. Retrieved 2018-12-08.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. Fox, Christopher (July 2017). "Juliet Fraser and Plus Minus, Café OTO, London, 7 February 2017". Tempo. 71 (281): 92–93. doi:10.1017/S0040298217000353. ISSN 1478-2286.
  11. "OUTER EAR: Juliet Fraser". Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  12. "details - Klangspuren|Festival - Festival Zeitgenössischer Musik". Klangspuren.at. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  13. "Bastard Assignments + Neo Hülcker". Bastardassignments.com. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
  14. Clements, Andrew (2017-04-12). "Feldman: Three Voices CD review – an exquisite act of musical remembrance". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  15. "Decontamination 9 | REVIEW - The Cusp Magazine". The Cusp Magazine. 2016-12-23. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  16. "BERNHARD LANG: The Cold Trip". KAIROS. 2017-07-20. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
  17. "Hamilton's Relentless Pursuit". The Journal of Music. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  18. "music for people | NMC Recordings". Nmcrec.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-09-14.
  19. cdechiara (2018-10-19). "AMN Reviews: Milton Babbitt – "Philomel" [ATD4], Juliet Fraser – Soprano, & Luigi Nono – "La Fabbrica Illuminata" [ATD5], Loré Lixenberg – Mezzo-soprano". Avant Music News. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
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