About
Jessica Danz is an award-winning performer, composer, visual artist and writer who has spent three decades forging a highly individual creative path. A vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, she has created solo material for voice, violin and piano in her own virtuosic folk-noir style, as well as composing ensemble works and live scores for theatre and silent film. As a visual artist she works in a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, printmaking, textiles and photography.
Using mythical characters and timeless narratives of journeys and metamorphosis to explore notions of identity and belonging, she examines the way in which outer landscapes are absorbed and assimilated into an inner world of dreams and stories.
Beginning tertiary study at the WA Conservatorium of Music at the age of fifteen, she completed her degree in 1997 at the University of Western Australia, winning the Vose Concerto Prize and the Edith Cowan prize. She was a National String Finalist in the ABC Young Performers Competition in the same year. In 1999 she was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Australian National Academy of Music. Subsequently she turned more seriously to composition, completing her first solo album and touring the works in Australia, Japan, Germany, Denmark and Italy.
Working in theatre as both a performer and a composer, she won a Green Room Award in 2008 for Best Sound Design in Independent Theatre. In addition to many years of teaching and orchestral experience, she has also worked with a diverse range of chamber ensembles, including Duo Ipkendanz-Yong, the Pi Ensemble and the Yarra Trio. In 2009 she was awarded the Corinna d’Hage Mayer Memorial Scholarship at Melbourne University, completing a Master of Music in 2010. After completing a Master of Music Performance in 2010, she spent the next few years focusing on her visual art practice, undertaking residencies throughout Australia and exhibiting locally and nationally. A series of residencies throughout Australia resulted in the creation of a series of large-scale abstract textile works inspired by landscape. She moved to Scotland in 2017, where she was commissioned to create several live film scores, awarded a Creative Scotland grant to create a new work for string quintet, and recorded three new solo albums.
Jessica has held solo exhibitions at An Lanntair Arts Centre in the Outer Hebrides, the Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany WA, Kurb Gallery in Fremantle, and at the Central Greenough Historic Settlement. Group exhibitions include Art Quilt Australia (Craft & Design Gallery, Canberra), the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition, SSA & VSA Together (Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland), Hidden Talent (Barony Arts Centre, Scotland), and a group show at Kidogo Arthouse Gallery in Fremantle.
Returning to Perth, Western Australia in 2021, she is creating a new body of work inspired by myth, motherhood and metamorphosis that includes paintings, mixed-media and textiles.
CURRICULUM VITAE
QUALIFICATIONS
2010 Master of Music (Performance): Melbourne Conservatorium of Music
1999 Advanced Performance Programme: Australian National Academy of Music
1997 Bachelor of Music (Performance): Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts / University of W.A.
AWARDS
2018 Creative Scotland Grant, Muriel Spark 100: Endless Different Ways
2016 Artflight Grant, Department of Culture and the Arts, WA
2009 Corinna d’Hage Mayer Memorial Scholarship for Postgraduate Study, University of Melbourne
2009 Yarra Trio: Finalists in the Trio di Trieste International Chamber Music Competition
2009 Yarra Trio: Winners of the Audience Prize for Piano Trio, Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition
2008 Green Room Award for Best Sound Design in an Independent Theatre Production, Melbourne
2005 Freedman Fellowship: National finalist, Australia
2005 Artflight Grant: Department of Culture and the Arts, WA
1999 Advanced Performance Programme Scholarship: Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne
1997 Vose Concerto Prize: University of Western Australia
1997 Edith Cowan Award in Music: Most Outstanding Performance Student of 1997, UWA
1997 ABC Young Performers Award: National string finalist, Australia
1997 Mundaring Bicentennial Scholarship
1995 Trio Contrasts: Winners of the WAAPA Chamber Music Competition
1995 Wesley Classics Critics Award For Individual Performance, WAAPA Chamber Music Competition
1994 Faith Court Award: WAAPA
COMPOSITION
SOLO ALBUMS
2019 Silence
2019 Islands of the North
2019 Under the World
2004 Nightfall
FILM & TV SCORES/SOUNDTRACKS
2020 Ionad Hiort – Oir an Dòchais (St Kilda Centre – Edge of Hope): BBC Alba documentary
2019 'Hilly Skiing': Documentary film by Henry Iddon
2017 Ísland í Lifandi Myndum: live piano score for commissioned for Faclan Festival, Isle of Lewis
2017 These Walls: live piano score, An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis
SOLO WORKS: SELECTED PERFORMANCES
2019 Solas Festival, Scotland
2018 Under the World, Faclan Festival, Isle of Lewis
2018 Vertex Festival, West Kilbride
2017 Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, Western Australia
2017 Solo Songs, The Old Convent, London
2017 On the Level Festival, An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis
2017 Taigh Chearsabagh Arts Centre, North Uist
2016 Tutl, Faroe Islands
2016 An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis
2015 An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis & Mission House Studios, Isle of Harris
2015 The Environmental Arts Festival, Morton Castle, Scotland
2005 World Expo, Japan
ENSEMBLE WORKS: SELECTED PERFORMANCES
2018 The Ballad of Muriel Spark: Jessica Danz & the Brodick Quartet, Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh
2008 Orpheus: La Mama Theatre, Melbourne
2004 The Shadow: Pi Ensemble, The Quarry Amphitheatre, Perth, WA
2003 Mosquito War Dance: Pi Ensemble, Perth Concert Hall, WA
SCORES FOR THEATRE, DANCE & RADIO
2010 Live score for Night Train Theatre's Orpheus and Eurydice: Deckchair Theatre, WA
2010 Music for Orpheus and Eurydice, produced by Humphrey Bower: Poetica ABC Radio
2009 Live score for The Kreutzer Sonata: Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Victoria
2009 Live dance score for Cultural Intersections, Melbourne, Australia
2007 Live score for Night Train Theatre's Kreutzer Sonata: The Courthouse Theatre, Melbourne
2007/8 Live score for Night Train Theatre productions Skin & Raising the Dead: La Mama Theatre, Melbourne, Australia
CLASSICAL/NEW MUSIC: SELECTED APPEARANCES & BROADCASTS
SOLO
2008 Bruch violin concerto: Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne
2008 Violin soloist with the Pi Ensemble: The Seasons by David Pye, broadcast on ABC Classic FM
2006 Beethoven violin concerto: Fremantle Symphony Orchestra: Perth, Western Australia
2005 Beethoven violin concerto: Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra: Perth, Western Australia
2004 Bruch violin concerto: Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra: Perth, Western Australia
1997 Vose Concerto Prize: Shostakovich Violin Concerto with W.A. Symphony Orchestra
1997 ABC Young Performers Award: Shostakovich Violin Concerto with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
CHAMBER MUSIC
2009 Duo Ipkendanz-Yong: Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Victoria, Australia
2009 Yarra Trio: Melbourne Recital Centre, Australia
2008 The Soldier’s Tale: Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Victoria, Australia
2007 Duo Ipkendanz-Yong: Melba Festival, Victoria, Australia
2003 Duo Ipkendanz-Yong: Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
2002 Duo Ipkendanz-Yong: Port Fairy Festival & Musica Viva ‘Menage’ series, Melbourne
2001 The Eclectic Collective: Melbourne International Festival/broadcast on ABC Classic FM
1999 Golder Trio: Melbourne International Festival
1995 ABC Radio Young Australia: César Franck Sonata for piano & violin
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Wolves, An Lanntair Arts Centre, Isle of Lewis, Scotland
2017 The River, Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, Western Australia
2014 New work, Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, Western Australia
2013 Myth and Memory, KURB Gallery, Northbridge, Western Australia
2013 New work, Central Greenough Historic Settlement, Western Australia
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Society of Scottish Artists, 30 x 30 Online Edition
2019 RSA Annual Exhibition - Open Art 2019, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2019 Hidden Talent, The Barony Arts Centre, North Ayrshire, Scotland
2018 SSA & VAS TOGETHER, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2013 Art Quilt Australia, Craft & Design Gallery, Canberra, Australia
2012 Ipkendanz-Quekett-Vinicombe, Kidogo Arthouse Gallery, Fremantle, Western Australia
PRESENTATIONS
2018 St Kilda - A Different Perspective, Faclan Book Festival, Isle of Lewis
2018 St Kilda - A Different Perspective, Portobello Book Festival, Edinburgh
2018 St Kilda - The Silent Islands Speak, ScotlandsFest 2018, Edinburgh Fringe
WORK IN THEATRE
2006 Red Dog, Black Swan Theatre Company, Western Australia: cast member/live musician
2005 The Odyssey, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne & Perth: cast member/live musician
RESIDENCIES
2018 Guest Room, National Theatre of Scotland
2017 Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, Western Australia
2016 The Steeple, Newburgh, Scotland
2016 Allenheads Contemporary Arts, Northumberland, England
2015 An Lanntair & Stornoway Port Authority Residency, Isle of Lewis
2015 Johanna sailing residency, Faroe Islands
2015 Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Western Australia
2014 Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, Western Australia
2013 Watch This SPACE, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
2013 Central Greenough Historic Settlement, Western Australia