Maria Cleary & Julia Fredersdorff

About the artists

Maria Cleary, Baroque harp

Harpist Maria Christina Cleary has been described as “a true virtuoso”, a “brilliant player” and “a pioneer of period harp practice”. She is noted for her improvisatory skills and ingenious basso continuo playing, combined with a particular care to create a beautiful sound on a perilous instrument.

A native of Ireland, Maria grew up surrounded with Irish music as well as receiving classical musical training in piano, recorder, harp and singing. She studied harp at the College of Music Dublin, and later began a Degree in Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. She studied harp at the Koninklijk Conservatoriums in The Hague and Brussels. During her studies, her mind was opened to many types of music: contemporary, experimental,  electronic, jazz and Informed Practices. In 2016, she was awarded a PhD, carried out in-and-through artistic practice from The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), Leiden University. 

Specialising in historical harps, she performs on one-rowed medieval harps, Italian (arpa doppia), Spanish (arpa de dos ordenes), German (Davidsharffe) and Welsh Baroque chromatic harps, and the 18th century harpe organisée. She has developed several innovative tunings for performing medieval and renaissance music, some of which can heard on recordings with Ensemble Tetraktys on the Olive Music label.

She performs as soloist with orchestras including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Bayerische Staatsoper, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Arion Ensemble Montreal and the RTE Concert Orchestra. She was a featured soloist at The World Harp Congress in Cardiff in 2020 and in Sydney in 2014, performing premiere performances of concertos by Krumpholtz, Handel, Hasse and Alberti. She has recorded over 40 CDs with orchestras and Early Music ensembles.

As a basso continuo player, she has performed in most festivals in the world including the Boston, Utrecht, Montreal, Salzburg festivals, with historically-informed orchestras and ensembles. As an orchestral player, she has worked as Principal Harpist in the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and later held the position of harpist of the RTE Concert Orchestra Dublin. 

In the 1990’s, Maria performed at the Playboy Mansion in LA and, even though she lives near Milan for the last 15 years, she has never played at La Scala.

Maria's travel costs have been generously supported by Culture Ireland.

Julia Fredersdorff, Artistic Director and Baroque violin

Melbourne-born violinist Julia Fredersdorff studied baroque violin with Lucinda Moon at the Victorian College of the Arts, before travelling to the Netherlands to study with Enrico Gatti at The Royal Conservatorium in The Hague. Based in Paris for close to a decade, Julia freelanced with some of the finest European ensembles, such as Les Talens Lyriques, Les Folies Françoises, Le Concert d’Astrée, Le Parlement de Musique, Ensemble Matheus, Les Paladins, Il Complesso Barocco, New Dutch Academy, Ensemble Aurora and Bach Concentus.

Now resident again in Australia, Julia is the founder and Artistic Director of the Tasmanian baroque ensemble, Van Diemen’s Band. She is a founding member of the chamber ensemble Ironwood, the twice ARIA-nominated baroque trio Latitude 37, and founder and former Artistic Director of the annual Peninsula Summer Music Festival on the Mornington Peninsula. Julia has appeared in major arts festivals around Australia and New Zealand and has toured extensively across Europe, from Reykjavík to Wroclaw, Madeira to Venice.

Julia has participated in nearly forty international recordings for the labels BIS, Virgin Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, Accent, Accord, Naïve, Erato, Passacaille, Ambronay, ABC Classic, Vexations840 and Tall Poppies.