Alice Giles
Resume
Alice Giles AM - Harpist
Alice Giles has been celebrated as one of the world’s leading harp soloists. Alice presented her debut recital in Sydney at the age of 13 and won First Prize in the 8th Israel International Harp Contest 1982, followed by recitals in Merkin Hall, New York and Wigmore Hall, London.
Regarded by Luciano Berio as the foremost interpreter of his Sequenza II, she has taken part in tributes to Berio at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Salzburg Mozarteum, and at the 92nd Street Y. She has given many premiere performances for her instrument, the most recent being a new solo show with lighting "Phoenix Angel". Alice commissioned a complete program of works for the electro-acoustic harp, and was Director of the Seven Harp Ensemble (SHE), which toured and recorded many new works by Australian composers.
As a recipient of an Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship, she performed a solo concert at Mawson Station in 2011 commemorating the Centenary of the first Australasian Antarctic Expedition. She presented the resulting multi-media program "Alice in Antarctica" in San Francisco, Oslo, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Alice was invited by Rudolf Serkin to participate for three summers in the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, USA, and has been a guest artist at numerous festivals including the Schleswig-Holstein and Insel Hombroich Festivals in Germany, Bath Mozartfest, Scotia Festival, Salzedo Centennial in Austin Texas, World Harp Congresses in Copenhagen and Vancouver, World Harp Festival Cardiff, Edinburgh Harp Festival, Adelaide Festival, Sydney Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Barossa, Coriole, Huntington, Four Winds and UKARIA Festivals.
Concert highlights include solo recitals in New York’s 92nd Street Y, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, and concertos with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Collegium Musicum Zürich, Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, English Symphony Orchestra, Mainzer Kammerorchester, Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, Hamburg Mozart Orchestra, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra and regularly with all the major Australian Symphony and Chamber orchestras.
She was the local Chair of the 2014 World Harp Congress in Sydney and has been elected Chair of the WHC to take effect after the 2026 "One Harp World". She was lead consultant in the complete revision of the Australian Music Examinations Board Harp Syllabus, including publication of Level 1 Grade Books, released in 2020. With an international reputation as a teacher she has given master classes in the Salzburg Mozarteum, The Hague Conservatorium, Royal Academy London, Cleveland Institute, Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, San Francisco Conservatory, Conservatorio G. Verdi Milano, Parma Conservatorio, Glenn Gould School Toronto, Detmold Hochschule, R. Schumann Hochschule, Norwegian Academy of Music, the International Youth Festival in Bayreuth, and in currently Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her annual Summer Course is held in Kioloa on the NSW South Coast.
Her discography includes several solo harp discs, a concerto disc with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (conductor David Porcelijn), and many chamber music discs including with Duo Corda (Arnan Wiesel, piano), the Budapest Brass Quintet, Seven Harp Ensemble, Australia Ensemble, and Geoffrey Collins (flute).
Alice was awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours for “significant service to the performing arts as a harpist, mentor and educator, and through contributions to Australia’s musical landscape.”
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