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The English soprano, Juliet 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.
Since Januarty 2003, Juliet Fraser is a freelance soprano specialising in the gnarly edges of contemporary classical music. A former chorister in the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, she began her professional career singing with British choirs such as Polyphony (Director: Stephen Layton), Tenebrae (Director: Nigel Short), Monteverdi Choir (Director: John Eliot Gardiner), and BBC Singers (Director: Sofi Jeannin). She is a core member of EXAUDI vocal ensemble, which she co-founded with composer/conductor James Weeks in 2002 and was also executive director of the group until 2014. With EXAUDI she performs a broad repertoire, from ars subtilior and Renaissance madrigals to the most complex contemporary scores. Her discography includes acclaimed recordings of Renaissance polyphony by Orlando di Lasso, Tomas Luis de Victoria and and William Byrd with Collegium Vocale Gent (2007-2012; Director: Philippe Herreweghe), J.S. Bach's Cantatas with Gli Angeli Genève (Director: Stephan MacLeod) and, most recently, the late madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo with EXAUDI.
Juliet Fraser has a repertoire dominated by the very old and the very new. Specialising in the gnarly edges of contemporary classical music, Juliet is an active commissioner of new repertoire and has worked particularly closely with composers Pascale Criton, Michael Finnissy, Bernhard Lang, Cassandra Miller and Rebecca Saunders. Recent festival highlights include Aldeburgh Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ManiFeste (Paris), Milano Musica, Musikfest Berlin, November Music and TIME:SPANS (New York City).
Juliet Fraser regularly performs as a guest soloist with ensembles such as Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Plus-Minus and Talea, with Bozzini and Sonar string quartets, and as a duo with pianist Mark Knoop. Much of her commissioning focuses on creating a body of new work for voice and tape/electronics or for voice and piano. She has recently commissioned pieces from Lara Agar, Laurence Crane, Pascale Criton and Nwando Ebizie. She is also known for breathing new life into existing repertoire such as Babbitt’s Philomel, Vivier’s Bouchara, Feldman’s Three Voices and Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.
In 2015, Juliet Fraser released her debut disc, Feldman's "Three Voices" (on Hat Hut); she has since released recordings of Andrew Hamilton's "To the People" (NMC), Bernhard Lang’s "The Cold Trip, part 2" (Kairos), Michael Finnissy’s "Andersen-Liederkreis" (Hat Hut), a binaural capturing of Babbitt’s Philomel (all that dust) and portrait discs of Cassandra Miller (all that dust) and Frank Denyer (Another Timbre). Her latest disc, "spilled out from tangles" (HCR), features works written for her by Lisa Illean, Sivan Eldar, Nomi Epstein and Lawrence Dunn.
Alongside her work on stage, Juliet Fraser enjoys writing words about being a performing artist. Recent essays have been commissioned by Britten Pears Arts, MaerzMusik - Festival for Time Issues and the Fragility of Sounds lecture series. She has delivered master-classes or short courses on contemporary vocal repertoire or collaborative composition at Royaumont Foundation, Britten Pears Young Artists' Programme, Dartington Music Summer School, Southampton University and Leeds College of Music. She is also in increasing demand as a panellist or presenter: she has been interviewed for podcasts hosted by sound festival, International Society of Musicians, From The Red House, Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Neue Musikzeitung, and has served on juries for The Arts Foundation, NCH/Sounding the Feminists, the Ivors Composer Awards and Royal Philharmonic Society.
Juliet Fraser is the founder and artistic director of the eavesdropping series and symposium in London, and co-director with Mark Knoop and Newton Armstrong of all that dust, a little independent label for new music. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the University of Southampton in 2023, recognizing her significant contributions to contemporary classical music, including commissioning new works, premiering hundreds of pieces, and her work with EXAUDI vocal ensemble and the eavesdropping festival.. |
