“The stunning young contralto Jess Dandy...offered sumptuous tone and beautiful legato. She's a name to watch”
NEIL FISHER, THE TIMES
Photography: Benjamin Ealovega
Jess Dandy is the foremost British contralto of her generation. Born in Cumbria, she studied Modern & Medieval Languages at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon.
An alumna and fellow of Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Jess has performed with many of the world’s leading ensembles and orchestras: among them the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä; The English Concert/Harry Bicket & Kristian Bezuidenhout; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Dalia Stasevska & Douglas Boyd; BBC Philharmonic/Gemma New, and Dunedin Consort/John Butt & Sir Trevor Pinnock.
She has appeared as a soloist at the world’s most prestigious venues & festivals: Carnegie Hall New York, Palau de la Música Catalana, Royal Albert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall, and the Edinburgh International Festival, inter alia.
Jess is regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Earmarked as “one to watch”, she opened the First Night of the BBC Proms 2021 and was shortlisted later that year for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. Her recordings of Handel for Linn Records with the Dunedin Consort (Samson 2019) and English Concert (Rodelinda 2020) were nominated for BBC Music Magazine & Gramophone Awards, with Jess’ contributions being reviewed as ‘stand-out’.
This season 2022/23 sees Jess make her debuts at Salzburg Großes Festspielhaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Welsh National Opera & Opéra Grand Avignon in works by Bach, Handel, and a new opera by Josephine Stephenson.
Jess is a multi-faceted artist with a keen interest in ecology, body psychology, and spirituality. She is the co-founder of SongPath, a mental health initiative creating musical walking trails in nature for better mental health. With composer Alex Mills, she is developing the Music & Being Collective, an open laboratory space exploring music and our sense of self through interdisciplinary dialogue.
This is not an official biography and should not be reproduced for official purposes. For an up-to-date press package, see Jess Dandy’s Askonas Holt artist page.
Jess Dandy is represented worldwide by Askonas Holt
Elgar Sea Pictures with BBC Philharmonic
from BBC Radio 3 Live in Concert, BBC Philharmonic/Gemma New, Bridgewater Hall 14th May 2022
Photography: BBC
