“Highlights that deserve mention include the virtuosic whimsy demonstrated by Jessica Aszodi”
“Aszodi gave a hugely impressive, engrossingly focussed and vividly precise reading of Gerard Grisey’s Four Songs ... Aszodi cut through the shadows with fierce brilliance to rage against the dying of the light”
“…splendidly passionate. She is one of the finest actress-singers in the country.”
Jess Aszodi
Jess Aszodi is a literal shape-shifter. An artist, writer, educator and performer, her mezzo voice has been praised for its “utmost security and power” (Chicago Tribune). Its unusual range, both in terms of colour and pitch - make it possible to perform repertoire across genres and voice types, where she creates bespoke techniques and concepts from project to project. She has built up a truly idiosyncratic set of embodied knowledges, from cycling while singing, to choreographically affected song, and a not small number of extremely extended vocal techniques. Her favourite thing is challenge.
Jess’ work crosses between opera, experimental music, improvisation, composition, and music theatre. Her favourite repertoire occupies a deep range and full gambit of colours like Berio’s Folksongs, Ligeti’s Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedűvel or Boulez' Le Marteau sans maître. She has twice been nominated for the Australian Greenroom Awards as ‘best female operatic performer’ - in both the leading and supporting categories. Her operatic roles include Eve (Stockhausen’s Dienstag aus Licht), Socrates (Satie’s Socrates), Aminta (Mozart’s Il re pastore), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Sesto (Guilio Cesare), Popova (Walton's The Bear), Rose (Elliot Carter's What Next?) and Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos).
She has performed as a soloist with opera houses and ensembles around the world including the London Sinfonietta, Wiener Volksoper, Nederlands Reisoper, Hamburg Staatsoper, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, ICE, Pinchgut Opera, the Tirolean Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, and the San Diego and Chicago Symphony Orchestras (chamber series). Her Festival appearances include the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Festivals, Darmstadt, Aldeburgh, Tectonics, Tanglewood, Klangspuren, Beethoven Festwoche, Resonant Bodies, Vivid Sydney, Aspen and BIFEM (where she was a long-time part of the curatorial team). A passionate exponent of new work she has performed important premieres by collaborators Liza Lim, Augusta Read Thomas, Dai Fujkura, Anthony Pateras, Jessie Marino, Cathy Milliken, Jenna Lyle, Sam Dunscombe, and Laura Bowler.
Jess also holds a Doctorate from the Queensland Conservatorium, and continues an artistic research and teaching practice focused on the materiality and politics of embodiment practices in the creation of new vocal performance. She has written articles for several books and journals and teaches workshops on the bodily as well as theoretical applications of her research.
She likes difficult stuff. And takes pleasure getting messy in the process of creating thick, touching, thinking, pieces.
Representation
For worldwide performance enquiries please contact Philippa Allan at RealArts pa@realarts.eu or +49 170 915 3383
“Exquisitely crafted songs by Poulenc proved the concert’s high point... Jessica Aszodi deployed a full arsenal of vocal colors and sure intonation to narrate these hallucinatory vignettes. ”
“ Aszodi made this rendition special. Her powerful voice blazed through Renga’s loudest playing, and her phrasing and stage presence caught the loneliness of the second song, the happy delicacy and brash swagger of the fourth song, and the melancholy beauty of “Der Abschied” (“The Farewell”). When I am in my final hours, someone please bring Aszodi to my bedside to sing “Der Abschied” so I may die a serene and happy man.” ”
Selected Press....
“Jessica Aszodi was superb as Bella, given the most lyrical music and having the widest range of emotions to express, moving believably between teasing sex kitten and committed revolutionary... [Fujikura’s Armageddon] may well prove to be the opera of 2020” (Armageddon. Opera Magazine, 2020)
” die unerschrockene, sehr munterer, und technisch hochversierte, Sopranisten Jessica Aszodi.” [the intrepid, lively, and technically highly accomplished, soprano Jessica Aszodi] (Ach! Süddeutsche Zeitung. 2020)
”Spiteri and Aszodi’s voices respond to each other’s like they’re reaching out with both hands, a harmonic chase of caramel tones and prayer, and, thankfully, twists of wit and fun.” (Oscar & Lucinda. The Guardian. 2019)
”...it’s near impossible to take your eyes off Aszodi, who dives headfirst into the character and sings with rich intensity across all of her range.” (Oscar and Lucinda. Timeout. 2019)
”[Aszodi], captures a similar sense of pent-up longing with her rich mezzo and delightful stage presence, fully embodying the agency that the character frequently demonstrates... She is certainly an operatic heroine for a new century, shattering the pattern of operatic victimhood” (Oscar & Lucinda. Australian Book Review. 2019)
”Jessica Aszodi is irresistible...” (A Little Night Music at Nederlands Reisopera, Bachtrack, 2019)
”Aszodi’s physical and vocal performances were both striking. When furiously hitting a drum suspended from a metal frame with a rope, not even the rope’s backlash across her body made Aszodi flinch, leaving her stage presence unaltered. Lim, who worked closely with Aszodi, made use of the soprano’s flexible vocal range, athletic stamina, and extensive palette of timbres. Aszodi has an exceptional ability to change quickly between operatic and deep, guttural singing” Tempo, 2018 (Atlas of the Sky, with Speak Percussion, Melbourne Recital Centre)
“The highlight of my [Melbourne] festival… was performed by 19 year old soprano Jessica Aszodi. If this festival has a spirit, Aszodi is it. Her voice is rich, her legato effortless and her interpretive skills bare comparison to her role model the late Cathy Berberian. It was clear from her performance that she took pleasure in her great gift” – John Slavin, The Age, 2005”