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Jane Edwards - Soprano

Jane Edwards

 

Jane Edwards appears regularly on concert platforms throughout the country, and has performed at all of the leading Australian music festivals, including Melbourne, Sydney, Huntington, Barossa, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. From 1990 to 1994, Jane was a member of The Song Company, and she currently teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Jane has given numerous world premieres, creating the role of Milena in Michael Smetanin's The Burrow, and appearing with Synergy in Jonathan Mills’ Ethereal Eye (also on ABC Classics CD). She is especially known for her interpretations of early music, in frequent collaboration with our foremost baroque experts. In addition, she regularly performs lieder and chamber repertoire in association with leading musicians including David Bollard, Marshall McGuire, David Miller and Geoffrey Lancaster. Recent performances include Beethoven Folksongs with Elizabeth Wallfisch, Tavener’s Akhmatova Songs with Richard Tognetti and Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben with Michael Kieran Harvey.

Her solo recordings include the soundtrack for Paul Cox's film Cactus, and CDs of Martin Wesley-Smith's Boojum! and Carl Vine's The Battlers, and she can also be heard in the Oscar winning film Shine and the Gold status Swoon II Collection. Other CD recordings include the early Italian disc Salut! (March 2000 early music recording of the month for UK Classic FM), On a Poet’s Lips with Marshall McGuire, Haydn vocal works with Geoffrey Lancaster and Olimpia with Chacona. A recent release (also an ABC Classic FM Disc of the Week) is The Gentle Muse, a collection of songs and arias by baroque female composers. Released also in 2004 is a collection of Alessandro Scarlatti cantatas and serenatas.

Career highlights include many engagements with both the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and solo appearances with the Danish National Radio Choir and Stockholm Bach Choir. She performed in the Victoria State Opera/Melbourne Festival production of Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, toured nationally with British baroque orchestra Florilegium, sang the Soprano Evangelist in Arvo Pärt’s Passio in the presence of the composer, appeared in recital within Paul Keating’s lecture at the University of NSW, and performed with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in celebration of Peter Sculthorpe’s 70th birthday.

Most recently she appeared with The Queensland Orchestra, Australian Bach Ensemble, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir, at the Melbourne Festival and Musica Viva Yarra Valley Festival, and in partnership with artists such as Ian Munro, Derek Lee Ragin, Geoffrey Morris and the Goldner String Quartet. Last season’s performances included the Australian String Quartet, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Australia Ensemble, Resonate Series at the Art Gallery of NSW and at the Adelaide and Blackwood River Festivals.