“A true contralto such as one rarely hears today”
Jess excels in the repertoire of Bach, Handel, Mahler, Elgar, and Berlioz, where the tessitura and orchestral forces demand real vocal presence and artistic maturity.
Photography: Chris Christodoulou
Raised on the Well-Tempered Clavier and winner of the London Bach Singers Prize 2018, Jess has always felt a great affinity for Bach, and is in demand both as a Matthew and John Passion soloist. She made her Concertgebouw debut this Passiontide as alto soloist in the Matthew Passion; her 2022 performance of the same work was praised for its ‘remarkable intensity’ (The Guardian) and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 with Harry Bicket conducting the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales at St David’s Hall, Cardiff. She enjoys a wonderfully vibrant working relationship with the Dunedin Consort, with whom she appeared at this year’S BBC Proms singing CPE Bach Heilig and with whom she has performed the Matthew Passion under John Butt, Sir Trevor Pinnock, and Kristian Bezuidenhout in Scotland and the USA. For her interpretation of the John Passion at Barbican Hall under Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music in April 2022, she was described as ‘sorrow personified’ by the Times. She has also performed the work with the Dunedin Consort/John Butt, Britten Sinfonia/Daniel Hyde and Les Arts florissants/William Christie. Particular career highlights owe themselves to the B minor mass, which took her to the Nikolaikirche, Leipzig and the Wigmore Hall for the first time back in 2018 and made her ‘a name to watch’ according to the Times. She made her Salzburg debut in December 2022 in the Christmas Oratorio with the Mozarteum Orchester under Matthew Halls, with whom she will perform the Mozart Requiem with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra this November.
Bach ‘Erbarme dich’
Handel ‘As with rosy steps’
Handel ‘Then long eternity…Joys that are pure’
Berlioz ‘Le spectre de la rose’
Mahler "Urlicht" (anon.) from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
The Angel's Farewell The Dream of Gerontius
“The remarkable intensity of Dandy’s delivery was nowhere more telling than in the aria Können Tränen meiner Wangen Nichts erlangen.”
Rian Evans, The Guardian
Photography: Dale Hodgetts
Jess has performed Handel’s Messiah with groups including the Dunedin Consort/John Butt, Halle Orchestra/Sofi Jeannin & John Butt, Britten Sinfonia/David Watkin, BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Stephen Layton, and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Manze (Mozart edition). She looks forward to Messiahs this December with Welsh National Opera at St David’s Hall, Cardiff and with the Academy of Ancient Music at Barbican Hall. Widely regarded as the foremost contralto of her generation, Jess took the role of Micah in the 2023 BBC Proms performance of Handel Samson with Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music and the Gramophone Award nominated recording with the Dunedin Consort/John Butt (Linn).
Other baroque collaborations include the album Vivaldi’s Women (Signum) with La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler, with whom she also appeared at the Wigmore Hall in March 2021 in a programme of Vivaldi and Ariosti. Future releases include a recording of CPE Bach Heilig with the Dunedin Consort/John Butt (Linn).
Jess also excels in the large-scale orchestral works associated with the great contraltos of the mid-twentieth century. Likened to Kathleen Ferrier by the Times, Jess resonates deeply with the works of Mahler, singing Symphony No 2 with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra/Andrei Feher and Symphony No 8 with the Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä, a recording of which is soon to be released (Bis).
‘the outstanding performance of the afternoon…a breathtaking account of the Aria: “If the tears on my cheeks are of no avail.” It certainly brought a tear to my eye.’
Peter Collins, Nation Cymru
Photography: Chris Christodoulou
“She brought as much passion and poetry in her singing as Elgar did to his writing”
Robert Beale, The Arts Desk
Jess Dandy, a true contralto, is the oratorio’s voice of balm, singing the sublime prayer ‘Return, O God of hosts’ with warm, even tone and broad phrasing.’
Richard Wigmore, Gramophone
Elgar Sea Pictures with BBC Philharmonic
from BBC Radio 3 Live in Concert, BBC Philharmonic/Gemma New, Bridgewater Hall 14th May 2022
Her interpretation of Elgar Sea Pictures with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Gemma New at the Bridgewater Hall in May 2022 was broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and Jess has enjoyed continuing to work with the BBC Philharmonic in a critically-acclaimed recording under John Storgårds of Shostakovich Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva (Chandos) and Spell of Creation, a new commission by Alissa Firsova, conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni as part of Manchester International Festival. Her first full-scale Dream of Gerontius took place in July at Exeter Cathedral.
Jess was the contralto soloist at the First Night of the Proms 2021. Broadcast live on BBC television and radio, she sang Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and Sir James Macmillan When soft voices die (a BBC Proms commission) at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Dalia Stasevska. She also performed Berlioz Le Spectre de la rose with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Douglas Boyd in a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast from Saffron Hall in 2019.
Singled out for her contribution to Mahler Symphony No 8 with the Minnesota Orchestra, Jess seems to make a habit of making an impact in repertoire not readily associated with the alto line. A career highlight to date was her debut at Carnegie Hall, New York in Beethoven Symphony No 9 with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
‘Jess Dandy’s commanding contralto made an impact. It’s rare enough to hear the alto line, let alone have it make you sit up and take notice.’ Rick Perdian, Seen and Heard International for Beethoven 9, Carnegie Hall.
Jess enjoys engaging with the British oratorio tradition and has appeared a number of times at the Three Choirs Festival, most recently in the second ever performance of Quo vadis by George Dyson under Adrian Partington and a new addition to the repertoire, Pietà by Richard Blackford under Samuel Hudson, both with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Hereford Cathedral. She has recorded Stanford Mass Via Victrix with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Adrian Partington and Vaughan Williams Pan’s Anniversary with the Philharmonia Orchestra/Will Vann (Albion).
Vaughan Williams Pan's Anniversary
Britten Sinfonia/William Vann
Albion Records 2022
‘The three soloists again blend perfectly with Jess Dandy’s powerful contralto especially compelling.’
Nick Barnard, Musicweb International
”I was particularly taken with the contralto”
Alan Cooper, British Music Society
Vivaldi's Women
La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler
Signum Classics 2022
“Jess Dandy is a game soloist in the wonderfully fiery Cur sagittas, luscious breadth of tone spilling over and softening some of the more awkward gear-shifts of register.”
Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone
Handel Samson
Dunedin Consort/John Butt
Linn Records 2019
“Jess Dandy, a true contralto, is the oratorio’s voice of balm, singing the sublime prayer ‘Return, O God of hosts’ with warm, even tone and broad phrasing.”
Richard Wigmore, Gramophone
Stanford Mass 'Via Victrix'
BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales/Adrian Partington
Lyrita 2019
MusicWeb-International Recording Of The Year.
“A fine quartet of young soloists” - MusicWeb-International
INTERVIEW WITH ASKONAS HOLT
The Contralto voice is rare animal; can you give us some insight into the challenges/rewards?
“I think the path towards my being a contralto was laid far earlier than I was aware. I continued to have singing lessons as a teenager, and, over a period of a few months, I quite distinctly remember my voice breaking. This is not something women talk about really…”