Jennifer Eriksson
Jennifer Eriksson completed her initial musical studies at the Sydney Conservatorium before moving to the Netherlands for three years of viola da gamba tuition with Jaap ter Linden at Rotterdam Conservatorium.
She founded The Marais Project in 2000 and directed Musica Viva in Schools ensembles for thirty-plus years, appearing in some 3,000 concerts across urban, rural and remote Australia. Jenny has recorded eleven albums and commissioned more than thirty works for viola da gamba and electric viola da gamba. Alongside her early-music passion she collaborates widely with early, folk and jazz musicians, and plays regularly with the improvising string group Inlay Ensemble.
She has performed in Sweden, Norway, Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Canada and New Caledonia. Jenny is Australia’s only electric viola da gambist and leads the electric viola da gamba band Elysian Fields. In 2025 she was appointed to the Musica Viva Australia National Members Council.
Jennifer Eriksson is featured on the following titles
Exquisite Harmonies
Exquisite Harmonies features works for viola da gamba and harpsichord, and several harpsichord solos, largely from the French Baroque. The exceptions are Telemann, Abel and Australian composer Troy Russell. A nice treat is an improvised harpsichord fantasia in the style of Telemann.
Producer: Executive Producer
Editing Engineer
Two
Two brings together Marais Project founding members Jennifer Eriksson, viola da gamba, and Tommie Andersson, gallichon, theorbo and baroque guitar. Each plays alternate brackets of solos before they join in a splendid suite by Marin Marais.
Producer: Executive Producer
Editing Engineer
The Garden Party
The Marais Project’s anniversary disc The Garden Party has a festive flavour, mixing world-premiere Marais arrangements and Eriksson’s title track with earlier Move recordings across French baroque, Swedish folk and South American song.
Composer
Producer
Editing Engineer
Love Reconciled
A landmark in Australian early-music performance, The Marais Project’s Love Reconciled is a recording to return to often and savour deeply.
Performing as The Marais Project
The Marais Project is a celebration of music for the viola da gamba inspired by Marin Marais, the great French virtuoso viola da gamba performer and composer. Formed by Jennifer Eriksson in 2000, the ensemble’s original aim was to perform the complete viola da gamba works of Marais – a monumental task which is more than 85% complete.
Nordic Moods & Baroque Echoes
A collaboration between Duo Langborn/Wendel and The Marais Project, this album blends baroque repertoire, new compositions and arrangements, and folk music from Australia and Sweden.
Composer
Producer: Executive Producer
Editing Engineer
Australian Monody
The Marais Project is joined by countertenor Russell Harcourt for a collection of largely Australian songs and instrumental works, spanning light and darkness, love and loss.
Composer
Arranger
Producer: Executive Producer
Editing Engineer
Spinning Forth
The title points to music still to come. The programme gathers French baroque viola da gamba repertoire with Swedish roots and newly commissioned Australian works, spinning forth in fresh directions.
Arranger
Producer: Executive Producer
Editing Engineer
Smörgåsbord
The Marais Project’s fifth disc gathers Swedish folk, Bellman songs, Roman and Marais chamber works, a jazz pavane and even ABBA, all heard for the first time in Australia on period instruments.
Producer: Executive Producer
Lady Sings the Viol
The concept behind Lady Sings the Viol was a CD of “covers”: five singers, alone and together, take songs from 1300 to the present, from Piaf and Schubert to John Paul Jones and Elena Kats-Chernin.
Performing as Elysian Fields
Elysian Fields, Australia’s only electric viola da gamba ensemble, was formed by Jenny Eriksson, Matt Keegan and Matt McMahon in 2015. The band is an ongoing experiment in new improvised and composed repertoire for the electric viola da gamba, of which Eriksson is believed to be the only Australian exponent.
Fika
Fika is the second album from crossover ensemble Elysian Fields: music shaped for the Swedish custom of gathering with friends over coffee, conversation and something sweet to share.
Arranger
Producer: Executive Producer
Editing Engineer
What should I say
Australia’s only electric viola da gamba band, Elysian Fields joins Jenny Eriksson with jazz colleagues Matt Keegan and Matt McMahon in new repertoire that sets Renaissance verse beside contemporary improvisation.
Producer: Executive Producer
Performing as Evergreen Ensemble
Evergreen Ensemble is where art music and folk music meet. It features four female musicians from Melbourne, Sydney and Geelong.
Snow in Summer
In 18th-century Scotland, folk songs sat beside Corelli and Vivaldi without hierarchy. Across thirteen tracks, Snow in Summer pairs period sonatas with folk arrangements: sparse strings, plucked notes like stars, and a voice high above.