Miriam Allan is an Australian Soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

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Education

Miriam Allan graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Newcastle, Australia

University of Newcastle, Australia

The University of Newcastle is an Australian public university that was established in 1965. The University's main and largest campus is located in Callaghan, a suburb of Newcastle in New South Wales...

, with first class honours and the University Medal. She received an Australian Postgraduate Award from the Australian Federal Government, and completed a Master of Creative Arts (Music).

Career

Miriam Allan has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras and choirs from all over the world. She has performed with Monteverdi Choir

Monteverdi Choir

The Monteverdi Choir was founded in 1964 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. A specialist Baroque ensemble, the Choir has become famous for its stylistic conviction and extensive repertoire, encompassing music from the early...

 and English Baroque Soloists

English Baroque Soloists

The English Baroque Soloists is a chamber orchestra playing on period instruments, formed in 1978 by English conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Its repertoire comprises music from the early Baroque period to the Classical period...

, London Baroque, London Handel Orchestra (UK), Les Arts Florissants

Les Arts Florissants (ensemble)

Les Arts Florissants is a Baroque musical ensemble in residence at the Théâtre de Caen in Caen, France. The organization was founded by conductor William Christie in 1979. The ensemble derives its name from the 1685 opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The organization consists of a chamber orchestra...

 (France), Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra was established in the early 1980s and has become one of New Zealand's major performing organisations. The instigation of its Composer-in-Residence programme in 1990 has made the orchestra an important force in the promotion of New Zealand composed...

 (New Zealand), Concerto Copenhagen

Concerto Copenhagen

Concerto Copenhagen, also known as CoCo, is a Danish period instrument orchestra, established in 1991 and directed since 1999 by harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen....

 (Denmark), Il Fondamento (Belgium), Gewandhaus Kammerchor, Leipzig Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Köln

Concerto Köln

Concerto Köln is a Baroque music chamber ensemble.The group formed in 1985, one of many groups associated with the surging interest in period instruments in that decade. Its members consisted mainly of recent graduates of conservatories from across Europe. They began touring the Continent, often...

, ChorWerk Ruhr (Germany), Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s largest choral organisation. It presents its own annual concert series in the Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall, as well as acting as chorus for the Sydney Symphony....

, Australian Chamber Orchestra

Australian Chamber Orchestra

The Australian Chamber Orchestra was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appointed Artistic Director....

, Chacona and Arcadia, Ironwood Ensemble, Queensland Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...

 (Australia).

She has worked with many directors and conductors, including Sir John Eliot Gardiner

John Eliot Gardiner

Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...

, Lars Ulrik Mortensen

Lars Ulrik Mortensen

Lars Ulrik Mortensen is a Danish harpsichordist and conductor.He studied with Karen Englund and Jesper Bøje Christensen at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and with Trevor Pinnock in London....

, Laurence Cummings

Laurence Cummings

Laurence Cummings , MA , ARCM, FRCO, HonRAM is a British harpsichordist, organist, and conductor. Cummings was educated at Solihull School, Christ Church, Oxford and the Royal College of Music...

, William Christie

William Christie (musician)

William Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....

, Roy Goodman

Roy Goodman

Roy Goodman is a conductor and violinist, specialising in the performance and direction of early music...

 and Stephen Layton

Stephen Layton

Stephen Layton is an English conductor.Layton was raised in Derby, where his father was a church organist. Layton learned the piano as a youth. He was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and subsequently won scholarships to Eton College and then King's College, Cambridge as an organ...

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She appeared on numerous recordings, including Pinchgut Opera’s Fairy Queen and Dardanus, The Wonders of the World with Echo du Danube, Mozart’s

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 Requiem

Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...

 with the Leipzig Kammerorchester and Gewandhaus Kammerchor.

She performed in performances of Purcell’s

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...

 The Fairy Queen with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Israel in Egypt with Maulbronn Kammerchor and Monteverdi’s

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...

 6th Book of Madrigals with Les Arts Florissants

Les Arts Florissants (ensemble)

Les Arts Florissants is a Baroque musical ensemble in residence at the Théâtre de Caen in Caen, France. The organization was founded by conductor William Christie in 1979. The ensemble derives its name from the 1685 opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The organization consists of a chamber orchestra...

, and in the Australian premiere of Bach’s

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 reconstructed Markuspassion in the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

 under Arvo Volmer

Arvo Volmer

Arvo Volmer is an Estonian conductor.Volmer was principal conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2001. Since 2004 he has been music director of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and both music director and principal conductor of the Estonian National Opera in Tallinn...

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During her European and Australian tours she often performs major works by Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, a unique selection of Purcell’s

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...

 songs from his semi-operas The Fairy Queen, The Indian Queen

The Indian Queen

The Indian Queen is a play by Sir Robert Howard, written in collaboration with John Dryden, his sister's husband. It was first performed in 1664 with incidental music by John Banister the elder...

 and King Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

, Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

's Messiah

Messiah (Handel)

Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...

 and Mozart’s

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 Requiem

Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...

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In 2003 Miriam Allan was a prize-winner in the Handel Singing Competition for young professional singers organized annually by the London Handel Society. She is a vocal coach at Westminster Under School and Head of Singing at Bloxham School

Bloxham School

Bloxham School is an independent co-educational day and boarding school located in the village of Bloxham, three miles from the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. It was founded in 1860 by the Reverend Philip Reginald Egerton and has since become a member of the Woodard Corporation...

 in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

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Since 2003 Miriam Allan has been based in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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Miriam Allan is described as one of Australia's best young singers and the superb Australian soprano.

External links

• Miriam Allan webpage