Press — Alice Giles

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reviews and quotes

"The most intelligent, sensitive and technically accomplished harpist I have ever met." Luciano Berio

"The harpist, Alice Giles, presented an exciting solo concert. Miss Giles has a fluent technique and a prismatic sense of tonal color and shows a keen awareness of musical structure, never allowing her interpretations to disintegrate into cosmetic prettiness." Tim Page, New York Times

"The word ‘radical’ has an extreme reputation. Taken in its essence, it exactly hits on the playing of the harpist Alice Giles on her debut record: deep and thoroughly gripping, decisive, totally basic, until the outermost limits...(she) digs deep in order to reach the roots of the music.” Ellen Kolhaas, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)

"Miss Giles is an assured, communicative performer and an astute program-builder......there were exquisite details." Will Crutchfield, New York Times

"She played the harp as I have never heard it played before. The tenderness, the lyricism were there certainly, but there was much much more. We heard rich, almost orchestral sonorities. This is one recital I shall not soon forget.” Ida Holmes-Moss, The Advertiser (UK)

"The harp recital by Alice Giles was gold-medal playing. Musicianship like this is to be treasured, whatever the instrument. Technical brilliance was the starting point: rhythmic discipline, control of rubato where appropriate, balancing of phrases, pedal authority–all these could be taken for granted. The wealth of expression was ideally managed. She can be a Paganini of the harp. Equally she can turn into a musical poet, or into a pure classicist." Fred Blanks, Sydney Morning Herald

"She is not only a harpist of virtuoso rank, but also a thorough musician. She gave the instrument breadth as well as delicacy, and both tonal and emotional variety." Dora Snowdon, The Jerusalem Post

"The results are frequently astonishing...It’s a winner"**** Classical Pulse (Tower Records, USA)

"This disc deserves to appeal to a broader audience than just Salzedo’s devotees...Scintillation sounds wonderful here; Giles revels in it’s sparkling colors and rhythms, and keeps a tight reign." Fanfare (USA)

"Alice Giles breezes through her program with deceptive ease. She is artistically and temperamentally equal to the demands of the music." American Record Guide

OTHER Press information

Alice was featured on an Australian Antarctic Territory Postage Stamp 2021 release celebrating the Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowships.

Eagle Harps, Nanjing, named a new model of Pedal harp the ‘Alice’ in honour of Alice in 2020.