TERM 3

Week 9, Friday November 15

Jane Sheldon (soprano)

The voice as a bodily power

Jane Sheldon is an Australian-American soprano who specializes in the creation and performance of avant-garde opera and exploratory chamber music. Praised by the New York Times for singing “sublimely”, Timeout Sydney for “an extraordinary vocal performance”, and The Washington Post for "a stunning performance", she has appeared with London Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony, Pinchgut Opera (AUS), Sound Icon (USA), Ekmeles (USA), Talea Ensemble (USA), Wet Ink (USA), Ensemble Offspring, the Australian String Quartet, and Sydney Chamber Opera (AUS), where she is an Artistic Associate. She has worked extensively with composers as they create new works for voice, most frequently with John Zorn, whose music Jane has performed across the globe. Jane has performed at international arts festivals such as the Sydney Festival, Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Jane is also an emerging composer. Her work Testimony I: Anne Wood won the Yale University Glee Club's Emerging Composer Competition in 2016 and received its premiere at Yale that year; Testimony II: Saltair (2017) was commissioned by the Australia Piano Quartet; Transformation (2017) was commissioned by Ensemble Offspring.

As co-composer, Jane released two recordings in 2018, Coming Down for Air, and Crossing (5 stars in the Sydney Morning Herald: “Out of the deluge of new music bursts an unexpected vision of beauty... Part bucolic dream and part sonic rainbow (arching from the 13th century to now)…”)

Jane is the co-director of the Resonant Bodies Festival's activities in Australia, with Jessica Aszodi.

www.janesheldonsoprano.com

Location: Robert Webster, Level 3, Room 334 - UNSW Sydney Campus Map