Joel Frederiksen

Bass singer and lutenist Joel Frederiksen - born in 1959 in Minnesota – is best known as the founder, director, and leader of the Ensemble Phoenix Munich, a small group of musicians known for performing early music. The son of a contralto opera singer, he began his musical journey by singing in choirs, in church and taking piano and guitar lessons at school. He studied singing with Loren Lund in Minneapolis, Minnesota before moving to New York to study lute with Pat O'Brien, who introduced him to music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Joel Frederiksen earned a master’s degree in Early Music in Michigan and then had to choose between earning a doctorate at Indiana University or accepting an invitation to join the Waverly Consort (in New York City) as their bass singer. He chose the Waverly Consort and began his career as a professional musician. He also performed with early music ensemble the Boston Camerata as their lutenist. He moved to Japan for a year in the mid-1990s and finally settled in Munich, Germany before he began his recording career. After releasing his solo album Orpheus, I Am in 2003, he founded the Ensemble Phoenix Munich. Signing to the Harmonia Mundi label, his new ensemble recorded a series of albums including ‘The Elfin Knight’ - Ballads & Dances (2007), O Felice Morire (2008), Rose of Sharon (100 Years of American Music 1770- 1870) (2011) and Requiem for a Pink Moon - An Elizabethan Tribute to Nick Drake (2012), which was a tribute to British folk singer and songwriter Nick Drake, whose compositions mingle with Renaissance melodies. The album was reissued in 2022 and rose to Number 47 in the French Classical Albums chart. In 2013, he was involved with the Reflektionen album, which was a tribute album to poet and composer Oswald von Wolkenstein. He returned to recording with the Ensemble Phoenix Munich with the albums Tell Me True Love (2016) and Un Niño Nos Es Nasçido - A Child for Us Is Born (2018), which was a collection of Spanish Christmas carols from the 16th century.

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