who am I?
Anna Freer is a musician and writer born in 1997, based between Adelaide, South Australia, and Zürich, Switzerland. She is interested in finding unique ways to tell stories through music and words and is passionate about bringing back our attention to nature, community, and joy.
After graduating from a Bachelor of Music in 2018 at the Elder Conservatorium with Keith Crellin and Elizabeth Layton, Anna relocated to Zürich and completed two Masters with Distinction (Performance, 2020-2023, Pedagogy, 2023-2025), studying modern violin with Rudolf Koelman and Sergey Malov and baroque violin with Monika Baer. During her last year of studies, she was the recipient of the prestigious Ramsay World Postgraduate Scholarship, whose generous funding allowed her to fully pursue and develop her artistic voice. In 2024, she joined and became an ambassador for Theresia Orchestra, was selected to compete in the International Max Rostal Competition, gave solo recitals in Australia and Switzerland, and played concerts with various ensembles throughout Europe. In 2025, she won an audition to become part of the inaugural Balthasar Neumann NOVA program for emerging artists on historical instruments, joined the team at Raum236 in Zürich, was a finalist in the Kiefer Hablitzel Prize, won the second prize at the ZHdK Duttweiler-Hug Wettbewerb, debuted at the Zürich Alte Music Forum in a duo with Rafael Arjona, and made her American debut in a duo with Mekhla Kumar in Bloomington, Indiana. Upcoming projects include duo concerts with violists Justin Julian (Australia) and Oriane Lavignolle (France/Switzerland/Spain), the creation of an improvisation collective in Zürich, a solo tour of the recital LABYRINTH in Australia, and touring residencies in France, Spain, and Cuba with Balthasar NOVA.
Anna is a versatile and creative player, equally at home on the modern and the baroque violin, and is especially interested in the practice of self-accompaniment, being also a trained and accomplished singer. She does this as a solo undertaking, in chamber music settings, and as an educational output. In solo settings, she frequently combines ancient and contemporary music with texts and songs to create narrative-driven programs (The Long Way Home 2023, MAGNOLIA SEASON 2024-2025, LABYRINTH 2025), performing these recitals internationally. In chamber music settings, she has collaborated with various leading Australian vocal ensembles to create expanded programs for violin and voice (Woman, Divine 2023, B.A.C.H 2023). As part of her ambassadorship with Theresia Orchestra, she developed a workshop called SING/PLAY for musicians about historically informed self-accompaniment, which she has given in France and Switzerland.
Anna loves to read, write, cook, swim, laugh, and hope. Her poetry and prose has been published in Ekstasis Magazine and Agony Magazine. She has a mostly-defunct Substack where she occasionally talks about perfectly curated playlists. There is a highly detailed breakdown of Eurovision in the works.