Hailed as "astonishing and luminous" (Bachtracks), soprano April Fredrick’s world premiere performance with ESO as the lead in John Joubert’s Jane Eyre was described as "utterly rivetting, with a terrific dramatic sense" (Music and Vision) and voted BBC Classical Music Magazine’s Premiere of the Year.
An Associate Artist with the English Symphony Orchestra, she has a passion for nuance and text, and as a lover of words, she has always felt a special attraction to song, taking special pleasure in finding ways to colour sound to bring songs to life.
Born in rural Wisconsin, she studied voice at the University of Northwestern St Paul, then took both an MMus and PhD at the Royal Academy of Music, where she researched the life, music and poetry of Ivor Gurney. There she also worked often with the innovative York Gate research groups and discovered the joy of combining research and performance to open the riches of the music she loves to audiences new and old. She also had the chance to work with Laurence Cummings and the Historical Performance Department, an experience that revolutionised her ideas of phrasing and ensemble.
Based in London, April has recently sung John Joubert’s An English Requiem with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Adrian Partington, and she has also appeared with the Warsaw Chamber Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. With a growing reputation for championing new works, April premiered and recorded Philip Sawyers’ Songs of Loss and Regret with the ESO and Laurence Osborn’sMicrographia with the Riot Ensemble. Other recent premieres include David Matthew’s Le Lac with the Orchestra of the Swan and Eric McElroy’s cycle The Fetch, while forthcoming premieres include Philip Sawyers’ Mayflower on the Sea of Time with the ESO.