“A true contralto such as one rarely hears today”

Dandy excels in the repertoire of Bach, Handel, Mahler, Elgar, and Berlioz.

She appeared to great acclaim in Mahler Symphony No 8 with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänska… ADD MORE TEXT HERE.

Jess makes her Salzburg debut in Bach Weihnachtsoratorium with the Mozarteumorchester dir. Matthew Halls, as well as Messiahs with the Academy of Ancient Music dir. Laurence Cummings and…

  • 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

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  • Handel Rodelinda The English Concert/Harry Bicket 2020

    Nominated for BBC Music Magazine & Gramophone Award, Times Album of the Week.

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  • Handel/Hasse Caio Fabbricio London Early Opera/Bridget Cunningham/Signum Records

    ‘Jess Dandy impresses with her control of the virtuoso elements as well as her wonderfully rich contralto lower register.’

    Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

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  • Vaughan Williams Pan’s Anniversary Britten Sinfonia/Will Vann/Albion Records

    ‘The three soloists again blend perfectly with Jess Dandy’s powerful contralto especially compelling.’

    Nick Barnard, Musicweb International

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  • Vivaldi La Serenissima

    Signum Classics

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  • Stanford Mass Via Victrix

    MusicWeb-International Recording Of The Year.

    ‘A fine quartet of young soloists’

    MusicWeb-International

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  • The Complete Songs of Samuel Barber Dylan Perez/Resonus Classics

    Classical Album of the Week The Sunday Times.

    ‘with Barron and Dandy making especially ravishing contributions in Op. 18 and 45 respectively’

    Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical

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  • ‘Jess Dandy’s authoritative mezzo brings great substance to the role of Micah…nowhere more effectively than in her brief but fantastically long-breathed arioso, “Then long eternity”. There is great beauty in her prayer “Return, O God of Hosts!” and her lament for the dead Samson is beautifully sustained.’

    Simon Thompson, MusicWeb International

  • ‘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

  • ‘Samson’s sidekick Micah can often seem something of a moralising bore, constantly popping up and commenting. But when sung by Jess Dandy, nothing is further from the truth. Dandy, a true contralto, brings a beautifully dignified sense of phrasing to everything she sings, whatever the emotion you are always moved by the way she phrases the music. She makes Micah dignified and sober, but never boring.’

    Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

  • ‘As Samson’s male confidante Micah, Jess Dandy gives constant succour, soothing Samson’s hot curses with mellifluous responses.’

    Berta Joncus, BBC Music Magazine

  • ‘There is fine singing from Sophie Bevan, Jess Dandy, Matthew Brook and the rest of the soloists’

    Richard Fairman, The Financial Times

  • ‘The other stand-out performance comes from the remarkable young contralto Jess Dandy, whose weighty but agile voice sounds tailor-made for the tricky role of Eduige.... It’s a treat to hear the part assigned to a true contralto rather than a mezzo (no disrespect to the great Janet Baker, who sang it opposite Joan Sutherland on Charles Farncombe’s vintage recording), and she’s a vivid singing actress, spitting poison in the virtuosic ‘De miei scherni’ and absolutely riveting in the Act Three dungeon-scene where she and Rodelinda fear their plan to spring Bertarido from the nick has fatally backfired.’

    Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical

  • ‘In this Rodelinda, the contralto rôle of Bertarido’s sister Eduige, the target of Garibaldo’s treachery, is sung by Jess Dandy, whose refined vocalism recalls that of the esteemed Alfreda Hodgson. Dramatically, she is wholly on point, convincingly imparting concern and contempt. Her account of ‘De’ miei scherni per far le vendette’ in Act Two bristles with indignation, her vocal colorations shifting with the passions of the text. The aria in Act Three, ‘Quanto più fiera tempesta freme,’ is sung with irrepressible tenacity, this Eduige proclaiming that she is a pawn in no one’s game. The theatricality, integration of registers, and tastefulness of Dandy’s singing are delightful and promise still greater things.’

    Voix des Arts

  • ‘Jess Dandy as Bertarido’s sister Eduige with fruity low notes’

    The Sunday Times

  • ‘Eduige, sung by Jess Dandy with a bronze depth of tone.’

    Richard Wigmore, Gramophone

  • ‘As the jilted Eduige, contralto Jess Dandy gives her bottom register a savage edge, and her runs explosive energy.’

    Berta Joncus, BBC Music Magazine

  • ‘Admirably firm’

    Richard Fairman, The Financial Times

  • ‘The chiming timbre of the contralto Jess Dandy (Eduige)’

    The Observer

  • ‘The casting, from top to bottom, couldn't be more perfect.’

    David Vickers, Gramophone

  • ‘Jess Dandy is a lovely Eduige’

    American Record Guide

  • ‘The other love interest is Eduige, a role taken by the contralto Jess Dandy who, being spurned, unleashes a well-supported chest register of some considerable theatrical impact.’

    Musicweb International

  • ‘Jess Dandy’s Eduige and Tim Mead’s Unulfo are also impressive in their roles and the only problem – if it really is a problem – is that Mead and Davies, who sing a lot together, are a little tricky to tell apart. Their timbres are similar. Ms Dandy’s fruity contralto is, however, very distinctly individual’

    Musicweb International

  • ‘Contralto Jess Dandy (Eduige) and countertenor Tim Mead (Unulfo) round out this excellent cast in equally fine style'

    Limelight

  • 'Eduige is one of the characters who suffer as a result of Handel and Haym's compressions, so that though she develops she does so in a sketchy form. However, the role was written for real contralto voice and here suits Jessica Dandy to a tee. She brings out the character of each of her arias and makes the most of the frustrating little that the composer gives her, especially as the third aria is remarkably perky.'

    Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

  • ‘Jess Dandy impresses with her control of the virtuoso elements as well as her wonderfully rich contralto lower register.’

    Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

  • ‘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

  • 'Shelley’s Music, when soft voices die is definitely one to return to. Jess Dandy’s deep alto is well suited for it…. Barber’s final effort turned out to be Three Songs, Op. 45, in 1972. As mentioned previously they were composed for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who however was unable to premiere them due to illness. Here they are sung by Jess Dandy, a true contralto with beautiful tone. The last of them, O Boundless, Boundless Evening, is a wonderful farewell to the genre by Barber. I fully understand that Fischer-Dieskau loved the song.'

    Göran Forsling, Musicweb International

  • 'Barber's final published songs, Three Songs, Op. 45 were written in 1972 for Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, who evidently loved them but was prevent from performing them by illness. Jess Dandy sings them with intense, focused tone which seems to emphasise the bleakness of the music. Less expressionistly hard edged then Despite and Still, there is an austerity to these and an intense melancholy, even in the more decorative second song.'

    Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

  • 'A macabre song about a man who finds himself buried alive, “Now have I fed up and eaten up the rose” is Joyce’s translation of a poem by Gottfried Keller, a poem he first heard in a musical setting by Othmar Schoeck. The titular rose refers to the doomed man’s last supper—his own funeral corsage! A metaphor for artistic exile and creative decay, “Rose” is one of the last songs Barber wrote. It’s sung by Jess Dandy, a young contralto with a strikingly powerful voice. Sensitive to the poem’s religious imagery, Dandy invests the ironic hymn with liturgical plangency, her resonant voice transforming the confines of her coffin into the walls of a cathedral. I’ve heard over a dozen versions of “Rose,” from Thomas Hampson’s resigned sighing to keening recitals on YouTube. This version is the best: Dandy understands the essential weirdness of the song.'

    Allen Ruch, Shipwreck Library

  • ‘with Barron and Dandy making especially ravishing contributions in Op. 18 and 45 respectively’

    Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical

Forthcoming Recording Projects

Mahler 8 Bis Records/Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä (post-production)

CPE Bach Heilig Linn Records/Dunedin Consort/John Butt (to be recorded autumn 2022)

Shostakovich BBC Philharmonic (to be recorded autumn 2022)

Brahms album with Dylan Perez, piano & Bobby Williams, sound engineer (in development)

Classical Album of the Week The Sunday Times

Barber's final published songs, Three Songs, Op. 45 were written in 1972 for Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, who evidently loved them but was prevent from performing them by illness. Jess Dandy sings them with intense, focused tone which seems to emphasise the bleakness of the music. Less expressionistly hard edged then Despite and Still, there is an austerity to these and an intense melancholy, even in the more decorative second song.

Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill  

MusicWeb-International Recording Of The Year

‘A fine quartet of young soloists’

MusicWeb-International 

‘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

‘Jess Dandy impresses with her control of the virtuoso elements as well as her wonderfully rich contralto lower register.’

Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill 

‘Jess Dandy impresses with her control of the virtuoso elements as well as her wonderfully rich contralto lower register.’

Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill 

‘Jess Dandy’s Eduige and Tim Mead’s Unulfo are also impressive in their roles and the only problem – if it really is a problem – is that Mead and Davies, who sing a lot together, are a little tricky to tell apart. Their timbres are similar. Ms Dandy’s fruity contralto is, however, very distinctly individual’

Musicweb International