Soprano Elissa Edwards is an exponent of vocal chamber music and opera of the 17th and 18th centuries hailed for her 'pliant, seductive, free-ranging voice’ (Gramophone) and her "glistening tone” (Early Music America). She is also a sacred music specialist and has been a featured soloist in many oratorio and cantata performances in the US and UK. Performance highlights include featured appearances with the Washington National Cathedral, the 2019 Barbara Strozzi Symposium at Princeton University, Gotham Early Music Series, Bach in Baltimore, American Harp Society, Amherst Early Music Festival, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and The National Center for Early Music, UK.  

She is the artist-in-residence at the Hammond-Harwood House Museum in Annapolis, MD where she organizes early music concerts in the historic ballroom. Ms. Edwards has won many awards and grants, and serves on the voice faculties of the Washington National Cathedral and The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Her training includes studies at the Royal College of Music, London, and performance degrees from Boston University (BM) and University of York, UK (MA).

Ms. Edwards has a passion to expose modern audiences to classical music in a new light. Her greatest pleasure is presenting themed concerts, often in historic locations, in which she brings the audience into the spirit of the musical and social world of past eras. Her programs highlight underperformed, yet stunning works from the 17th & 18th centuries. Through her expressive vocal interpretations, spontaneous ornamentation and intelligent regard for communicating poetic text, she captures the hearts and sparks curiosity with her audiences.  

CURRENT CONCERT TOURS

Jane Austen’s Songbook

Miss Austen’s favorite songs and arias from her personal music collection. 

Enchanting Voices

Music by Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini - 17th century Italy's most darling female composers.

Richard Kolb’s Canzonetta Ensemble

An English Christmas

Traditional carols and Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, sung with harp. 

Ethereal & Earthly Airs

Charming selections of sacred and secular works by Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mozart, sung with harp.

Légendes anciennes

French baroque cantatas retelling myths from classical antiquity.

The Pleasure Gardens

Songs of J.C. Bach performed at London’s Vauxhaul Gardens.

INTERPRETATION

'I specialize in using baroque gesture, an intricate system of hand gestures and body poses which was commonly understood in the 18th century but is now little known. This allows me to dramatize the music that I sing, bringing out the emotions of the characters and bringing the meaning of the text more directly to modern audiences.

I use the most historically accurate scores available – facsimile or urtext – in rehearsal and performance. This is essential, as it allows me to tap into the intentions of the composer and more freely interpret the music. Singers of the 17th and 18th centuries were expected to ‘tastefully’ ornament whatever they sang. Each country had its own style and I enjoy reading treatises written by musicians of the baroque era in order to learn these styles. I use these rules as a framework to highly stylize and decorate my musical interpretations.'

'My goal as a performer is to unleash classical music from the museum-like atmosphere that it sometimes inhabits. Instead, I channel the spirit of singers from past eras and try to let the music live again. When planning and preparing a new program, I immerse myself in the era and setting of the music by reading literature, and immersing myself in the artistic, fashionable, and social culture of the times. I am fascinated with weaving a tapestry of time, place and ideals, and incorporate those creative visions into my performances. This historically spirited, yet unbridled, emotional style of performing is my calling as an artist and I am honored to share it with you.'