“The stunning young contralto Jess Dandy...offered sumptuous tone and beautiful legato. She's a name to watch”
NEIL FISHER, THE TIMES
Photography: Clare Park / Benjamin Ealovega
Cumbrian born Jess Dandy is the foremost British contralto of her generation and has been praised for her instrument of velvety plangent timbre, and her artistic remarkable immediacy. Jess studied Modern and Medieval Languages at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, and is an alumna and Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Highlights of the 2024/25 season include her return to the BBC Proms for Holst’s The Cloud Messenger with the BBC Symphony conducted by Sakari Oramo, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Boston Symphony conducted by Ludovic Merlot at Tanglewood, Thomas Adès Totentanz with Leipzig Gewandhausorchester conducted by Thomas Adès, Mozart’s Requiem with Aalborg Symphony conducted by Sofi Jeannin, Handel’s Messiah with Tampere Philharmonic conducted by Matthew Halls, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Concertgebouworkest conducted by Riccardo Minasi and Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet with Bergen Philharmonic and Bryn Terfel, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.
On the recital stage, Jess will return to the Oxford International Song Festival for a programme entitled Eternity in an Hour with Keval Shah, to the Wigmore Hall for a recital with Dylan Perez and to the University of York for a recital with Ben Goldscheider, Fenella Humphreys and Martin Roscoe, amongst others.
Jess finds a natural habitat on the recital platform and enjoys working with a range of pianists, including Martin Roscoe, Dylan Perez, Malcolm Martineau, Chris Glynn, James Baillieu, Julius Drake, Gary Matthewman, Keval Shah, Ian Tindale, Sholto Kynoch, Anthony Hewitt, Gavin Roberts, Iain Burnside, Simon Lepper, Huw Watkins and Wolfram Rieger.
In 2021, Jess was shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the category of Young Artist. She 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 developed the Music & Being Collective, an open laboratory space exploring music and our sense of self through interdisciplinary dialogue.
Jess is based in Cumbria, United Kingdom
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
