On 15 March at 7.30pm Harriet is performing along with the Petersfield Musical Festival Chorus with Southern Pro Musica in a concert entitled “Gloria! Vivaldi, Haydn & Corelli” at Petersfield Festival Hall.
How did you get in touch with the Petersfield Musical Festival?
I’m part of the Josephine Baker Trust, through which the festival contacted me. Let me tell you more about the Trust.
When someone joins one of the Music Colleges, they get the chance to audition for the Josephine Baker Trust. I did that in the first year of my Masters. Once you become part of it, it means that you can take part in lots of different sorts of oratorios throughout the year with lots of different groups of people, so it’s really exciting. The Trust supports each concert by helping to pay the artists. It’s a really lovely scheme for young singers.
What are you looking most forward to when performing at the Petersfield Musical Festival?
I’m singing in Haydn’s Creation Mass and then Vivaldi’s Gloria.
A lot of people know the Creation – the other Creation, not the Creation Mass. When I found out that there was a Creation Mass, I was really excited, because I’d never heard of it before. I had to listen to it, and it’s amazing: it’s really diverse – each movement offers a different expressive colour. My favourite movement is the last, the Agnus Dei, because of the way in which the voices all move between each other. It is so beautiful and the harmonies are wonderful in it. It’s very exciting: it’s quite declamatory at the beginning and then it moves through lots of different colours, and at the end it’s particularly beautiful and the harmonies sound lovely. I’m really excited to move through those different emotions as I sing the piece and to explore a work I have never sung before.
The Vivaldi is such an exciting piece. I love the Laudamus te duet that I’m singing with the mezzo-soprano. We bounce off each other throughout the duet. I start and then she comes in and it’s a kind of conversation. So I really love singing that with the other singer. The other piece is the Domine Deus, which is a lovely piece, very calm and flowing almost like a river. It’s really legato and it’s a really beautiful thing to sing so I look forward to it.
Who and/or what have been the most important influences on your musical career so far?
I am in my second year of my Masters at the Guildhall in London currently. I am doing a Master of Arts, specialising in singing. One my favorite types of music is interdisciplinary music – I love to work with both theatre and music. I am also really enjoying writing my own poetry and prose and then vocalising over the top of that, so creating work that spans across multiple creative spheres.
I am working on an array of different things at the moment. I am a member of the National Youth Theatre: I came from more of an acting background. I grew up in Somerset and I just happened to be surrounded by lots of people who loved music, which really inspired me. My granddad was a director of music, specifically of opera. I grew up watching him rehearse orchestras and singers. That really ignited a curiosity in me. I recall humming Sweeney Todd as I walked up the stairs in his house and thinking, that’s what I would love to do.
My granddad initially inspired me, and then also my Mum and sisters did so – they love music from the 80s. And so I’ve been influenced by a whole span of different kinds of music while growing up.
After school I went straight to the Royal Academy of Music in London to do an undergraduate music bachelor’s degree specialising in voice. That shift was massive, but I soon settled in and got the hang of it, and London became like a second home. And since then, I have been discovering the kind of art I want to make, working with people whom I really care about, people who excite me. I love working across lots of different creative spheres, collaborating as much as I can between art forms and with other people.
Have you got any specific projects you’re working on at the moment where that collaboration might be illustrated?
Yes. My friend Sholto (also on my course) and I have managed to receive some funding from the Undisciplined Department at the Guildhall, so we’ve been able to Commission a new short Opera which we will be performing on the 12th of July. For the first half of this performance evening, I will be reciting some poetry that I’ve written about my experience growing up in Somerset, and it will be supported by other musicians who will improvise over my poetry. I will also improvise vocally after I have recited the poems. We are in the middle of the process of writing the opera.
What have been the greatest challenges of your musical career so far?
I love music so much. And I think that when you love something so much and it becomes the thing that you do every day for your career, it’s very easy for that to also become something quite worrying because so much sits on it.
A real challenge has been acknowledging the fact that I care so much about it and I love it, and therefore it comes with some concerns as well, because I’m also using it to make money.
So I think the past year I’ve just reminded myself, that I actually do this because I love it, but it’s not the only thing I can do and it’s not all that I am. So I think it’s very helpful to remind yourself that you are a human first and foremost, and that is in itself enough, and then you also make music. And that is beautiful and wonderful, but it is not all that you are. And I think that is quite a healthy way to approach things as a musician because it is such a vulnerable thing to be doing. And it’s very personal because ultimately it is you performing and expressing yourself as a human.
Do you want to say anything about your approach to composition? How you go about it or what? What generally inspires you to compose?
I love writing. In terms of writing, I will often go to an art gallery. My Dad is a visual artist, so he sculpts and paints and therefore I feel very at home in a gallery. He always used to drive us around galleries when I was growing up. So I’ll often go and sit in a gallery as they are beautiful and quiet spaces with lots to look at and be inspired by. I’ll just sit there with a notepad and I’ll think “What am I aiming to write about today?”
Recently I was writing a poem about Glastonbury Tor, which we’re going to use in our concert in July. I just began to write about memories I had going up the Tor. I often write about things I’ve seen. So my poems are often quite descriptive, and they’re full of a lot of imagery. I wrote about memories I’d had as a child walking up the Tor and about all the different people who find peace and perspective up the Tor. And then often as I do with my poetry I simply allowed it to flow out of me, as I enjoy free writing.
When I get started with a poem, I try not to over-analyse it; I’ll simply write a first draft of what instinctively pours out of me, and then I’ll go back and bit by bit I’ll have a look and see if I can make any rhyming schemes throughout the piece and see if I can group it up into sections. I’ll do that a few times, and often I’ll come back to it a week later or a few days later, because I think often you read something quite differently after a few days. By contrast in the moment it feels very true to you, because it’s just been written. But a few days later you read it through a different lens.
How does the music get into these writings?
With my poems, I use a lot of improvisation. I will read the poem and then I’ll make a soundscape by recording my voice and layering the sound. I will start with one harmony and then I’ll add another and another and I’ll record this to make a harmony that feels right with the words. And then I’ll improvise melodic lines over the top. I also occasionally add in some other sounds like birdsong depending on the theme of the poem. So then when I perform in a live space, I’ll have this recording I’ve made as a backing track. Then I’ll vocalize and improvise live in the concert over my soundscape. It’s very free really, which is quite exciting and I really enjoy it.
Are there any composers either of the past or the present who have given you great inspiration?
Yes, i am really enjoying Lily Boulanger’s work at the moment. She wrote an amazing cycle when she was about my age, Clairières dans le ciel. She manages to create such profound pain within the cycle and the harmonies are so emotive, they really resonate with me. I think that they sound quite guttural when you listen to them. A lot of her cycle is very magical in the way it sounds. She manages to take the listener on a journey through a diverse range of emotions. It’s a cycle that I’m really drawn to. I sang half of it in my final recital, and I’d really like to sing the whole of her cycle at some point. It’s very beautiful and it feels deeply sincere both when you listen to it and when you perform it.
Do you have any memorable concerts that you would like to recount?
In live performances, anything can happen. When I was doing my first Messiah, I simply sang my piece and sat down and I thought that I could just relax for a bit and listen to the music. And then suddenly the beginning of How beautiful are the feet began. And I thought, surely not, but I didn’t realise there’d been a cut, so I suddenly had to stand up quickly and act as though I’d known the whole time and walked across the stage. I was on completely the wrong page, so I had to sing it by memory, but luckily I knew it well enough. That’s a story that’s made me think, “always check where the cuts are.”
Would you give any particular advice to anybody embarking on a career such as you are on?
If you love it, absolutely do it because it’s so life-enhancing to be surrounded by music every day. Whether you’re performing or listening, I think music can add so much to everyone’s enjoyment of life. Try to be true to yourself. Listen to yourself. We often know what is best for ourselves and know what we should or shouldn’t be doing. It’s within us, so trust that.
Don’t be scared to make mistakes. Be kind to yourself. Have an open mind. Making mistakes is human. See it and then move on. And it can be challenging because you’re doing a really personal thing, and it can be challenging financially and it can be challenging mentally. And that’s OK. It’s part of being human to find things hard. And it is a hard career.
Seek help: we are all in it together. Ask people about their experiences. Work with your colleagues. There’s plenty of support out there. There’s amazing organizations and trusts who can help young people coming into a music career. But just do it because it’s wonderful, and make art that resonates with you, make art that feels true to you, because you’ll move others if you feel moved yourself. And if it’s true to you, then it will resonate with the other people watching.
What would you like to be doing in five years’ time?
I would like to be collaborating with lots of different creators and performers, and working across both music and theatre as a performer and director, and to be doing more of my own writing.
About Harriet
Harriet studied Musical Theatre at Bridgwater and Taunton College before studying at the Royal Academy of Music where she studied and graduated with First Class Honours. last year she began her Master’s degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In 2023 Harriet worked with Bampton Classical Opera on their production of At the Venice fair by Salieri which she thoroughly enjoyed. Harriet sang as a soloist in Vivaldi’s Beautus Vir and Dixit Dominus with the Brandenburg sinfonia in Holy Trinity church, Sloane square. In 2021 Harriet played the role of ‘Mum’ in the world premiere of Louise Drewett’s new opera Daylighting at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre. In 2024 she won the ‘Most Promising Young Singer’ award at the Somerset Song Prize.
Harriet was also an Ashburnham English song finalist in the summer and recently performed in The Rape of Lucretia By Benjamin Britten in the Role of Lucia for this year’s British Youth Opera Production.
In 2023 Harriet performed as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Mayfield Festival. She had the opportunity to sing a song recital at the Wigmore Hall as part of their music for the moment series. In 2024 Harriet sang a soloist for London Fashion Week with the Patrick McDowells collection.
Harriet is also a member of the Philharmonia Chorus student scheme where she has had the opportunity to perform under the direction of conductors such as Semyon Bychkov and Santtu Matias Rouvali. Harriet has been supported by Help Musicians, the Kathleen Trust, Guildhall and the Josephine Baker Trust and the Yorkshire Ladies council of Education. Alongside Harriet’s singing she is also a passionate actor and is a member of the National Youth Theatre and recently directed Margarida Gonçalves chamber opera for the Tête-à-tête Opera Festival.
Instagram: @haz.performs
