ABOUT

Described as "pure vocal beauty "by Classic FM, Fair Oriana are a chamber ensemble known for the pure tone and trade-mark blend of their two sopranos. They specialise in singing historical repertoire, but delight in mixing historical periods and styles, performing creative chamber concerts with a hint of theatre. 

 

​Specialist early music sopranos Angela Hicks and Penelope Appleyard formed Fair Oriana in 2019, and, together with their instrumental colleagues, mix historical music with entertaining staging, contemporary influences and, varying genres such as folk, jazz and cross-over.  Their concerts are often characterised by their use of gesture and acclaimed acting.

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Their  debut album 'Two Voices' was released in 2021 with VOCES8 Records, and the accompanying video of Handel's 'Eternal Source of Light Divine'  posted online by Classic FM in their 'Hall of Fame' (Find it here.) The album is an intimate collection of English chamber music from the Renaissance to the Baroque, featuring Thomas Morley's Twelve Canzonets to Two Voices. They enjoy collaborating with composers and commissioned new works for the album by Fraser Wilson and Owain Park. Where possible they also include new works in their concerts, their popular programme 'The Trials & Triumphs of Oriana' containing three commissions that set Elizabeth 1's own words to music, by Fraser Wilson and Louise Duggan.

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They perform their chamber programmes in concert series around the UK and internationally. These have included the Three Choirs Festival, the Ryedale Festival, Sherborne Abbey Festival, the Resonanzen Festival at Wien Konzerthaus and many others. They have appeared three times in the Mozartsaal of Vienna's Konzerthaus, firstly with their Robin Hood programme (devised especially for the festival) and then with Handel cantata 'Aminta e Fillide', an historically informed performance in collaboration with Opera Settecento, which they premiered at St George's Hanover Square in 2019. For this simply staged production they use baroque gesture and period performance practices. In 2024 they returned to Vienna with a specially devised programme about Venus, described as "most charming pre-Raphaelite music-theatricality...more English than toast with marmite and cheddar!"  This has since been performed at the atmospheric Moon Museum, whilst installed at Blackburn Cathedral.

 

They have appeared on Women's Radio Station's Future Classic Women Awards, BBCRadio 3, Classic FM online, BBC Radio Norfolk and are played regularly on Ancient FM. They were delighted to be selected for Musica's International Young Artist Presentation in 2021, to have been finalists in the NCEM International Young Artists Competition 2022, and to have been Making Music Selected Artists. 

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Fair Oriana offer distinctive, flexible programmes of Elizabethan, baroque and cross-over repertoire, comprising solos, duets, instrumental music and spoken word. See our programmes page for more information.

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"Utterly Captivating... heartfelt and fascinating from start to finish"

-Sherborne Abbey Festival

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Media appearances include:

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Early Music Today (October 2019)

ISM Magazine (November 2019)

Opera Magazine (February 2020)

Women's Radio Station (March 2020)

Ancient FM (April 2020 onwards)

BBC Radio3 Breakfast Show & InTune (May 2021)

Classic FM online (2021)

Aminta e Fillide broadcast live on Austrian Radio (January 2022)

BBC Radio Norfolk (January 2022)