JULIET FRASER – soprano
REBECCA LEA – soprano
EMMA TRING – soprano
LUCY GODDARD – mezzo
JESSICA GILLINGWATER – mezzo
TOM WILLIAMS – countertenor
STEPHEN JEFFES – tenor
DAVID DE WINTER – tenor
BEN MCKEE – bass
SIMON WHITELEY – bass
JIMMY HOLLIDAY – bass
JAMES WEEKS – director

 

Soprano Juliet Fraser has a repertoire dominated by the very old and the very new. In new music, she has performed as a guest soloist with Klangforum Wien, Remix Ensemble, Plus-Minus, ICTUS, We Spoke: New Music Company, London Sinfonietta and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She has premiered well over 100 works, many of which have been written for her, and has worked particularly closely with composers Rebecca Saunders, Cassandra Miller, Michael Finnissy, Bernhard Lang, Matthew Shlomowitz and Andrew Hamilton. Recent highlights include premieres at Donaueschinger Musiktage, MaerzMusik, Transit Festival 20/21, Wien Modern, hcmf// and Kammer Klang. Her recording of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices was released on Hat Hut Records in November 2016. Juliet is principal soprano and co-founder of EXAUDI. www.julietfraser.co.uk

Rebecca Lea has appeared as a soloist in concert and on BBC Radio 3 with ensembles including Ensemble 10/10, Psappha, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the NDR Radio Choir. She enjoys performing a varied repertoire and recent highlights include Purcell’s King Arthur in the Laieszhalle, Hamburg, Louis Andriessen’s Dances with Ensemble 10/10, Judith Weir’s The Consolations of Scholarship at Sage, Gateshead, King Harald’s Saga at the Wigmore Hall and performances at Oxford Lieder Festival and Aldeburgh Music. She also works as a freelance consort and ensemble singer with groups including the BBC Singers, Britten Sinfonia Voices, Stile Antico, The Choir of the Enlightenment and Oxford Baroque. Rebecca is also Artistic Director of the award-winning music theatre company Re:Sound (www.resoundmusictheatre.co.uk).

Emma Tring has built her career as a concert soloist and ensemble singer over the past 10 years. As a soloist she has appeared with many distinguished groups including  the BBCSO, Ensemble InterContemporain, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, RPO, St James Baroque and The Hanover Band. Her solo work can be heard on recordings including Judith Weir’s ‘Storm’, Harrison Birtwistle’s ‘Moth Requiem’ and Gabriel Jackson’s ‘Airplane Cantata’. In her capacity as a BBC Singer, of whom she has been a member since 2008, she has worked under the baton of some of the world’s leading conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Sir Simon Rattle, Oliver Knussen and Marin Alsop. As an ensemble singer she has also performed with I Fagiolini, The Clerks and The Sixteen, and has appeared in roles on the operatic stage as far afield as Thailand and the Middle East.

Lucy Goddard is a committed interpreter of contemporary music.  With EXAUDI she has appeared in major festivals and venues, including Spitalfields, Aldeburgh and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festivals, Kings Place, South Bank Centre and Wigmore Hall, with ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, BCMG, Talea Ensemble and Ensemble Modern, and has held residencies and given workshops at IRCAM, Royaumont and Aldeburgh.  With Erratica she devised and performed in Triptych at Walton’s Music Hall, as part of the Spitalfields Festival, and at the Print Room, Notting Hill.  She appeared as a soloist in David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion with Cryptic Theatre at King’s Place, London, and on tour. Beyond contemporary music, recent opera roles include Dorabella Così Fan Tutte, Zerlina Don Giovanni, Annio La Clemenza di Tito, Meg Page Falstaff and Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel. As a baroque specialist she has performed as a soloist with groups such as the Academy of Ancient Music and Solomon’s Knot in venues including the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square. Lucy graduated with distinction for her Masters at the Royal Academy of Music, having previously read Languages at Cambridge University and studied violin at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Italy. She is also a devoted teacher and voice and language coach, and enjoys other aspects of music making, such as conducting and playing the violin. www.lucygoddard.com

Countertenor Tom Williams combines a busy performing career with the post of Vocal Tutor at Uppingham School and the Directorship of Leicestershire Chorale. As a soloist, he has appeared in venues all over the world and as a choral and ensemble singer he has worked for a number of leading conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Sir Andrew Davis and Kurt Masur. With the EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, Tom enjoys a busy performing schedule on the continent and at home, recently singing at the Musikverein in Vienna, the Theatre de la Ville in Paris and giving a solo recital at the Temple Church in London. This is his eighth year as Musical Director of Leicestershire Chorale, with whom he has received critical acclaim in both a national and international sphere. He has conducted the Temple Singers and Temple Choirmen and directed the Vocal Ensemble Course at the Dartington International Summer School. He has also directed Finchley Children’s Music Group and acts as a vocal coach for the RSCM.

Stephen Jeffes is forging a successful career as a contemporary music specialist, and recent solo performances in this field include Rihm’s Vigilia with Musik Fabrik; Eötvös energische Schönheit with Ensemble Modern; Gerard Pesson’s Trois Cantates (wp) with Ensemble L’Instant Donné for the IRCAM Agora Festival (Paris); Stravinsky Threni and Sermon, Narrative and Prayer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo; Alan Williams Wonder: A Scientific Oratorio (wp) with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; Vivier’s Journal with the Psappha Ensemble and Michael Finnissy’s Gesualdo: Libro Sesto with EXAUDI at the Huddersfield Festival. He is very proud to be a full time member of EXAUDI and the BBC Singers, with whom he has performed across the UK and Europe.

David de Winter was trained at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Jonathan Papp and Ryland Davies, and was awarded the Stanley Picker Trust and Leverhulme Awards. He has performed extensively throughout Europe and beyond. Recent engagements include Carceriere in Donizetti’s Pia di Tolomei (ETO); Goro Madam Butterfly (Bury Court Opera & Southbank Sinfonia) at the Anghiari Festival in Italy; Monteverdi’s Vespers (The King’s Consort) at the Rheingau Festival and Coridon Acis & Galatea (EOC) at the Salisbury Festival. Future plans include Lawyer in Birtwistle’s Punch & Judy for Shadwell Opera and Messiah with Doha Baroque Ensemble. As a recitalist he has performed in the prestigious London English Song Festival at St George’s Hannover Square, the Henry Wood Hall, and also at the 180° festival in Sofia, Bulgaria. Away from music, David is Sports Editor for digital newspaper The London Economic (www.thelondoneconomic.com) and co-founder of South London Youth Opera.

Jimmy Holliday sang as a chorister at Lichfield Cathedral, and as a Lay Clerk at Winchester Cathedral. He studied for four years at the RCM where he won numerous awards including MBF’s inaugural Richard Van Allan award and the 10th Hampshire Singer of the Year competition. He completed his studies at the prestigious National Opera Studio, London. Alongside his position in EXAUDI, Jimmy is a member of the BBC Singers and works regularly with Tenebrae, Ensemble Plus Ultra, The Sixteen, I Fagiolini, The Gabrieli Consort and The Tallis Scholars. He has given recitals at various UK festivals and is a regular oratorio performer in the UK and Europe. Opera roles from RCM productions included Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sarastro Die Zauberflöte. He made his debut with ENO in Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz, and also performed Billy Jackrabbit Girl of the Golden West with them. He has also performed Nick Shadow The Rake’s Progress and King Heinrich Lohengrin with Ostrava Opera Company, and Colline La Boheme with Opera North.

Currently a Lay Clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Simon Whiteley also tours and records with some of the best-known choirs and ensembles in the world, including EXAUDI, The Tallis Scholars, The Cardinall’s Musick and Tenebrae. He also runs and sings in the internationally renowned a cappella group, The Queen’s Six (www.thequeenssix.com). Educated at Royal Holloway, he won both the Pompilia Legge Scholarship and the Driver Prize for excellence in the Performing Arts. He has performed as a soloist in many operatic and oratorio works, and has participated in workshops with Graham Johnson. He is recorded as a soloist with James Bowman and Fiori Musicali on the CD Zelenka: Requiem in C Minor. In his spare time Simon enjoys composing and arranging, cycling, cooking, cryptic crosswords, reading, and horror films.

James Weeks’s music has been performed and broadcast worldwide; recent works have been completed for Ensemble Plus-Minus, Quatuor Bozzini, London Sinfonietta, EXAUDI, Alison Balsom, Apartment House and Anton Lukoszevieze. His work can be heard on three portrait discs on Métier and confront recordings, as well as on the Wandelweiser, NMC and HCR labels. He founded EXAUDI with Juliet Fraser in 2002, and maintains a busy international touring schedule with the ensemble. In great demand as a guest conductor, he has worked with musikFabrik, London Sinfonietta, BCMG, L’Instant Donné, IXION, BBC Singers and Endymion. James is Associate Head of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London. www.jamesweeks.org