Dolcissimo

Hannah Lane, baroque harp
Anna Fraser, soprano 

Image Albert Comper

For more information about the artists, please see the Additional Information section below.

About Hannah Lane
A ‘rising young star of early harps’, Hannah Lane is the leading Australian exponent of the rare baroque harp. Hannah studied modern harp with Alice Giles and historical performance practice with Geoffrey Lancaster graduating with high distinction. Thanks to the support of the Australia Council for the Arts, Hannah commenced specialisation in historical harp in 2014 with the guidance of renowned exponents Andrew Lawrence-King and Maria Christina Cleary. 

As a soloist and continuo player Hannah performs regularly with the leading Australian early music ensembles including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Latitude 37, Van Diemen's Band, Genesis Baroque, and Ludovico’s Band. She has appeared at international festivals including the Spoleto Festival (Italy), Urbino Musica Antica Festival (Italy), the Canberra International Music Festival, and the Adelaide Festival, where she performed the baroque harp solo in Handel's Saul with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in the critically-acclaimed production direction by Barrie Kosky. She is a recording artist for Obsidian Records (UK), ABC Classics, and Pinchgut Live.

From 2017—2019 Hannah was based in Italy to pursue further studies in historical harp under the tutelage of Chiara Granata and Mara Galassi. She has performed in the UK, Poland, and throughout Italy with ensembles such as {oh!} Orkiestra historyczna, Lux Musicae London, the Reate Festival Baroque Ensemble (dir. Alessandro Quarta), I Madrigali Estensi, and the Orchestra Nazionale Barocca dei Conservatori Italiani, an ensemble comprised of the leading young period instrumentalists in Italy. Hannah is an active researcher—viewing this as an integral part of historically informed performance practice—and has a broad array of interests in the areas of musicology, cultural history, literary criticism, and gender studies. She has presented at academic conferences and published on historical harp performance practice.

About Anna Fraser
Anna Fraser has gained a reputation as a versatile soprano specialising predominantly in the interpretation of early and contemporary repertoire. Anna is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and New England Conservatory (Boston) and furthered her studies in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program featuring as a soloist at the Aldeburgh Festival (UK) under the direction of Richard Egarr and the late Antony Rolfe-Johnson. As a core ensemble member of the Song Company for over a decade, Anna has had the pleasure of performing in a myriad of traditional and exploratory programming expertly demonstrating the versatility and virtuosity of a cappella singing. Equally at home as a dramatist on the stage presenting opera and historically informed chamber music, Anna is a strong exponent in music education, particularly with Moorambilla Voices and Gondwana Choirs.

Anna performs extensively with a number of Sydney's professional ensembles including Pinchgut Opera (since 2004 with notable roles in L'Orfeo, Dardanus, L’Ormindo, Castor et Pollux) and Cantillation; Sydney Chamber Opera (Dusapin’s Passion, Finsterer’s Biographica); Sydney Philharmonia Choirs; Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Ironwood; The Acacia Quartet, Ensemble Offspring; Halcyon; Taikoz; Bach Akadamie Australia, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Salut! Baroque, Sydney Consort and Thoroughbass. Anna has collaborated with international ensembles such as period specialists The Wallfisch Band (Bach Unwrapped cantata programmes at Kings Place, London) and the New Zealand String Quartet (Adam Chamber Music Festival, NZ; Canberra International Music Festival).