Juliet Fraser: Wave Songs

Soprano Juliet Fraser returns to City with a programme featuring Alvin Lucier's pioneering work for female voice and pure wave oscillators alongside two brand-new works that respond to the writings of American marine biologist and environmentalist Rachel Carson.

Inspired by Carson's 'Sea Trilogy', Nwando Ebizie enters the world of deep time to draw parallels between the personal and the cosmic; Newton Armstrong explores the image of a constant underwater 'snowfall' of sediment that descends gradually to intensely dark depths, forming a swirling, descending murmuration of diversely particulate matter.

New works commissioned with the generous support of Arts Council England's National Lottery Project Grants, PRS Foundation's Open Fund & RVW Trust.

Programme

• Alvin Lucier, Wave Songs (1998)
• Nwando Ebizie, I birth the moon (WP) (2022)
• Newton Armstrong, The Book of the Sediments (WP) (2022)

Performers

• Juliet Fraser soprano
• Newton Armstrong sound

About Juliet Fraser

Soprano Juliet Fraser specialises in the gnarly edges of contemporary classical music. Internationally recognised as a committed interpreter of new music, Juliet regularly appears as a guest soloist with ensembles such as Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Remix, Talea and Quatuor Bozzini. She is also a core member of EXAUDI vocal ensemble, which she co-founded with composer/conductor James Weeks and which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year.

Juliet is an active commissioner of new repertoire: premieres this season include new works written for her by Laurence Crane, Pascale Criton, Martin Smolka and Anna Zaradny. She is equally recognised for breathing new life into existing works such as Milton Babbitt’s Philomel, Morton Feldman’s Three Voices and Gérard Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.

Juliet’s discography reflects the full breadth of her repertoire, with acclaimed recordings of early music performed with Collegium Vocale Gent and EXAUDI released on Harmonia Mundi and Outhere, and solo albums of contemporary repertoire released on NEOS, Kairos, HCR and Hat Hut.

Juliet is the founder and artistic director of the eavesdropping festival in London and co-director of all that dust, a little independent label for new music.