"Sing softly…" brings together two outstanding soloists, Juliet Fraser and Alan Thomas, for a programme that celebrates and reinterprets the sound-world of the Elizabethan lute song. Voice and guitar combine to create an atmosphere of fireside balladry, dominated by the timeless themes of rustic romance and pastoral idyll.

The music of John Dowland sets a scene of intimacy and gentle melancholy, echoed in the works of modern composers such as William Walton, John Cage and Howard Skempton. The progamme also features new songs written by young British composers Kim Ashton, John Habron, Claudia Molitor and Philip Venables, commissioned with funds from the Britten-Pears Foundation and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust. In this collection, four well-known Dowland songs serve as inspiration for the new pieces, telling a story of love's pleasures and pains.

Balancing the soundworlds of the Renaissance and the present day, the duo’s programme fits equally in early music and contemporary festivals as well as having strong appeal to more general concert audiences. Forthcoming performances of 'Sing Softly…' in 2008 include performances at the Soundwaves Festival (Brighton) on 27 June and at London's Handel House Museum on 2nd October.

Soprano Juliet Fraser was educated at the Purcell School as a first-study oboist and then at Selwyn College, Cambridge where she read Music and History of Art. In her final year she joined the chapel choir of Clare College, directed by Timothy Brown.

Based in London, Juliet is a busy freelance soloist and consort singer, with a particular interest in early and contemporary music. She is the founder and manager of the acclaimed EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble. Besides her work with EXAUDI, Juliet sings regularly with Polyphony, Tenebrae, the Monteverdi Choir, The King's Consort, the BBC Singers, and recently with Collegium Vocale Gent.

As a soloist, Juliet made her BBC Proms début last year with Endymion at the Cadogan Hall. Recent solo engagements also include Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri in the QEH, Mozart's C Minor Mass in the Shoreham Festival, and Bach's St John Passion with the Wimbledon Academy. With contemporary music group Kürbus, Juliet has performed in Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, the Handel House Museum, and in last year's Soundwaves Festival for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Engagements in 2008 include the Windsor Festival Spring Weekend and Vaughan Williams' Benedicite in the Shoreham Festival.

The guitarist Alan Thomas was born in Atlanta, and com-pleted his studies at Indiana University and the University of California at San Diego. Based in the UK since 1997, he is much in demand as a recitalist and concerto soloist in music ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, but has been particularly dedicated to contemporary music and the exploration of new sonic resources of the guitar. He has given world premières of over fifty works, and in 1997 became the only guitarist ever to win first prize in the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Holland.

Alan has performed extensively throughout the UK, Europe, the United States and Asia, and has been a featured artist at many of the major international festivals and concert series. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with the Nieuw Ensemble, Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Exposé and Kantak, and he has also worked extensively with the groups Apartment House, Ensemble Exposé, Endymion, Gemini, Topologies, Lontano, and Ixion. He has recorded compact discs on the Accord, Métier, Matchless Records, NMC and Guitar Classics labels, including a critically acclaimed recent release of his own Lennon/McCartney arrangements called The Long and Winding Road.

Sample Programme 
Dowland Fantasy (solo guitar) 
Dowland Sorrow, Stay      
                To ask for all thy love 
                Come again 
                Time stands still  
                Flow my tears 
Cage The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs 
          A Flower 
Skempton Five Preludes (solo guitar) 
Walton songs from Anon in Love 
             Bagatelles (solo guitar) 
And new songs by Kim Ashton, John Habron, 
Claudia Molitor and Philip Venables.

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