Sarah Fryer

British/ Canadian mezzo-soprano Sarah Fryer began her musical studies as a specialist music pupil at Wells Cathedral School, where she studied flute & singing. After gaining an Honours degree in Theology from Exeter University she continued her vocal studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (where she was awarded the Onckin Prize for performance) and in Florence, with the distinguished Belgian soprano Suzanne Danco. She has worked in master classes at the Britten-Pears school for Advanced Musical Studies with Sir Peter Pears, Hugues Cuenod, Heather Harper, John Shirley-Quirk, Kurt Equiluz and Galina Vishnevskaya. In 1993 she was a finalist in the Royal Overseas League singing competition and in 1994 she received sponsorship from the British Wagner Society.

Sarah Fryer has sung extensively in Europe and in North America, and has been a guest of many festivals including Aldeburgh (‘Nancy’ Albert Herring/ ‘Laura’ Iolanta; Steuart Bedford, conductor/ Bach Cantatas; George Malcolm, conductor), Dartington (L’Enfance du Christ, Berlioz; John Alldis, conductor), Taormina Arte, (‘Edelknabe’ Lohengrin; Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor), Murcia, (Weinachtsoratorium, Bach) and the Three Choirs Festival. She has appeared with many notable orchestras and choirs including the Halle Orchestra (Bruckner’s Te Deum, Stanislav Skrowaczewski, conductor), the Bach Choir (London, Sir David Wilcocks, David Hill), Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico (Enrique Batiz), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis), The Hanover Band and the Philharmonia Orchestra (London).

Sarah Fryer made her Bayreuth Festival debut in 1993 singing the ‘Alt solo’ in Parsifal conducted by James Levine. She returned for the next five festivals (1994-1998) to sing ‘Wellgunde’ in Das Rheingold and Gotterdammerung (James Levine) and ‘I Knappe’ in Parsifal (Giuseppe Sinopoli). She also took part in video recordings of both Gotterdammerung and Parsifal for Unitel. Other operatic engagements include ‘Flora’ in La Traviata for Opera Ireland (David Lloyd-Jones) and ‘Wellgunde’ in Gotterdammerung for L’Opera de Nantes (Guido Ajmones-Marsan), in Turin and at La Scala, Milan (Riccardo Muti).

Sarah’s repertoire is extensive and diverse.She has recorded the alto solo in the Rachmaninov Vespers with the Philharmonia Chorus(London) and she sings the ‘Angel’ in a recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,directed by David Hill. Notable concert engagements include Haydn’s Harmoniemesse and Bach’s St.Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir at the Royal Festival Hall, London and two appearances at The Three Choirs Festival in a new commission by Francis Pott and Elgar’s Coronation Ode. Performances in Canada include the Durufle Requiem at the Calgary Organ Festival and for Festival Vancouver, Schubert’s Mass in A Flat with the CBC Orchestra under Helmuth Rilling, and the Verdi Requiem , Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, De Falla’s Three Cornered Hat and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Bramwell Tovey.

An experienced recitalist, Sarah Fryer has worked with many notable accompanists including Martin Isepp & Anthony Legge. In January 2003 she performed a group of songs, accompanied by Bramwell Tovey, at a reception given by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in honour of Mstislav Rostropovich. Sarah is a busy chamber musician and recently performed and recorded for CBC radio a piece called I Remember based on The Diary of Anne Frank, by the American composer Michael Cohen, for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello and harp.She continues to perform in Europe and was last in Britain in January 2005, to perform Four Poems of Saint Teresa of Avila by Lennox Berkeley, with The Southern Sinfonia under David Hill.

Recent engagements include Elijah with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra , Bach’s B Minor Mass with The Vancouver Bach Choir & Schubert’s Mass In A Flat for the Calgary Philharmonic, directed by Mario Bernardi.