About

An award winning performer, one of Australia’s most distinctive, provocative and versatile vocalists, Jessica is passionate about promoting female voice/narrative/presence within the music industry. Not wishing to reinforce the outdated and damaging attitudes towards women that dominate the traditional opera scene, Jessica thrives as a new music specialist - collaborating with leading Australian composers (Finsterer, Chance, Polias, Stanhope). She’s premiered dozens of operas and musical works including ‘Gilgamesh’ (2024) Sydney Chamber Opera Company in collaboration with Opera Australia, ‘Three Marys’ (2023) at Sydney Opera House (Greenwell), ‘Antarctica’ (2022) at Holland Festival and Sydney Festival (Finsterer) and will premiere Nico Muhly’s new opera written specifically for her as a solo work, as well as Jack Symonds’ new opera ‘Gilgamesh’ in collaboration with OA, directed by Kip Williams.

Embodying Composer, Artist, Producer, and Artistic Director roles Jessica is leading a revolution within the art-music and contemporary opera scene.

As composer, Jessica is forging a new path. One of only four selected in the highly prestigious Words, Text, Voices, Music composition program (Conservatorium of Music), she is studying her PhD under supervisors Liza Lim and Paul Stanhope. Her works, including a chamber opera, Menarche, exploring generational trauma, unveiling and erasing shame commonly passed from mother to daughter in relation to the female body and menstrual cycles, will place her firmly within the ranks of new Australian composers.

As artist, Jessica champions strong and relevant female narratives, exemplified in SCO’s Fumeblind Oracle (nominated APRA/AMCOS 2022 Work of the year-Dramatic), where Jessica’s character, written specifically for her, evolved from love-interest/temptress into complex, realistic woman, embodying all Jessica stands for while commenting on decades of misrepresentation of women in opera, and art generally. “O’Donoghue’s performance was a tour de force of dramatic range held together with brilliant vocal precision and control” (SMH).

As producer, Jessica creates opportunities, challenging the status quo of contemporary classical music. She’s received funding for works including The Mother Project (2020) exploring facets of modern day motherhood including postnatal depression, the economy and invisibility of care, queer parenting, and miscarriage, and Running Man (2022) which explores aspects of serious mental illness including psychosis and schizophrenia. Along with multiple City of Sydney (2021) and Vivid Sydney X-Celerate Program (2019, 2020) grants to create pop-up live music and 3-day Women in Music festivals to preview her album and showcase emerging female artists.

As Co-Artistic Director with the prestigious Song Company, Jessica’s influence and philosophy aims to promote a rich and relevant voice within the industry while maintaining her position as Mezzo among the elite singer group. Her programming will both champion and commission new Australian works while celebrating the company's 40-year legacy as Australia’s national vocal ensemble. Jessica’s instrumental role will develop new Emerging Artist and Education/Training programs for the company.

“Australia’s Jessica O’Donoghue creates pop music like you have never heard it before. Mixing electronic pop with opera, medieval music and jazz her music is an eclectic and invigorating listening experience. Its eight tracks remain true to her creative ethos and are darkly atmospheric and moving that challenge and confound you in the best possible way as O’Donoghue pushes the envelope on what pop music can be.”

— Women In Pop

“Rise Up is an ambitious and deeply rewarding listen. Each track is part of the jigsaw of what is an emotive and grand music odyssey....Rise Up is a journey of epic proportions both musically and in the subject matter it explores. It’s art and dramatic pop at its very best featuring Jessica’s thrilling vocals that soar over a bed of intricate vocal harmonies, rich string textures, tribal drums, cinematic synths and warm brassy tones with French horns and tubas.”

— Bruce Baker, The AU Review

“What starts like a Floydian synth drone in ‘Awakening’ quickly turns into one of the most enrapturing vocal albums of the year, with Jessica’s otherworldly voice both merging with the layered synth and string backdrops as well as shining on top of it elsewhere. Let yourself be carried away with these spellbinding sounds. Absolutely breathtaking.”

— Dario, ProgSpace

“Combining industrial electronics, rich vocal harmonies, warm synths and operatic influences, Rise Up is without a doubt O’Donoghue’s most ambitious release to date. O’Donoghue continues to haunt audiences and critics alike – putting her as a pioneer of her own brand of post-baroque dramatic pop.”

— Jacopo Vigezzi, ProgRock Journal

“The marvellous singers offer even more riches. An early trio gorgeously intertwines Fraser’s velvety timbre and Petruccelli’s firm, resolute tenor with O’Donoghue’s sumptuous mezzo. All are superb.”

— Limelight

“Ambitious and exquisite: Antarctica is contemporary opera at its best. Finsterer uses voices for their intrinsic character, their timbre, as much as their ability to convey words and emotions. The Theologian, Jessica O’Donoghue, duets with the Daughter in dreams of wonder.”

— Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald

“These ravishing voices – solo and in trios and quartets – are spectacularly beautiful and deliver the complex music and often opaque text with exemplary clarity.”

— Diana Simmonds, Stage Noise

“The cast is the same as that on stage during the Holland Festival, and one is in awe of their focus and concentration: they are faced with particularly challenging performance conditions. All the roles in Antarctica are demanding, often stretching the voices to the limits of their range, but the vocal challenges posed can be met by well-schooled operatic voices.”

— Michael Halliwell, Australian Book Review

“It was an astounding start making the audience sit up in their seats. This is no ordinary performer. O’Donoghue proved herself to be an incredibly unique, versatile and ambitious artist/composer. We can look forward to much more of her work in the future.”

— Annabell Drumm, Sydney Arts Guide

“The Song Company Studio at Wharf 4/5 at Dawes Point was quickly filling up with an enthusiastic crowd coming to see Entangled, a “Close-up” performance by Jessica O’Donoghue. It was a sell-out, and more chairs had to be brought in.”

— Heidi Hereth, ClassikOn

“Engaging and eclectic, Jessica O’Donoghue charges through unchartered waters on Emerge…Revelling in her raw and righteous vocal power, Jessica O’Donoghue dances above an alternative pop backdrop with the ease of a true artisan.”

— HappyMag

“A mercurial talent, Jessica has created songs with real depth. Listening to the album is a full-bodied experience: theatrical and intimate, operatic and haunting, raw and urgent, at once dark and contemplative and inspiring. It’s pop music with a difference.”

— Ashleigh Wilson, Arts Editor at The Australian

“It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”

— Delia Bartle, Journalist – Indie Shuffle

“This was a standout. Hypnotic composition, skillful delivery.”

— Jessie Cunniffe (Music Critic for Rolling Stone Magazine)

“O’Donoghue railed and unravelled through emotional extremes. Her performance was a tour de force of dramatic range held together with brilliant vocal precision and control.”

— Peter McCallum (Sydney Morning Herald 4.5 stars)

“O’Donoghue’s powerhouse performance drives it forward with wry humour and relentless fury, the singer deftly juggling vocal virtuosity and searing energy. In the rear-view mirror, Janic’s keening is simply the jumping off point for her own blistering performance.”

— Angus McPherson (Limelight, 4 stars)

“Jessica O’Donoghue is magnificent as she commands the stage, using extended vocal techniques in a fiery display of female power.”

— Matthew Westwood (The Australian)

“The vocalists – Jane Sheldon, Simon Lobelson, and Jessica O’Donoghue in this work – showed exceptional range, with virtuosic execution of techniques such as vocal fry, portamenti and fricative sounds along with beautifully phrased melodic material.”

— The Conversation

“O’Donoghue, Sheldon, Lobelson, and Riley spanned remarkable vocal demands and range with exemplary professionalism.”

— Sydney Morning Herald (4 stars)

“Jessica O’Donoghue makes a memorable feminist hero, a grimly determined woman who sets her face into the storm”

— Limelight (4 stars)

“O’Donoghue’s performance is mesmerising. The music is tumultuous and rhythmic, but her singing is as slow and tentative as her steps. Her voice is a perfect vehicle for the almost mediaeval style of her part.”

— The Saturday Paper

“…five excellent soloists: Jane Sheldon, Simon Lobelson, Andrew Goodwin, Anna Fraser and Jessica O’Donoghue. Every one of these is worth lining up early for – so you can get a seat close to the stage; you may be amazed by the strength and quality of these voices.”

— Timeout (4 stars)

“The omni-talented Jessica O’Donoghue (a wonderful pop singer-songwriter as well as classical performer) finds an elegant awkwardness for the tragic daughter of Cardano. One hopes to see more of her on the opera stage in future.”

— Partial Durations

“As his syphilitic daughter Chiara lies dying – Jessica O’Donoghue’s voice rich and lamenting over Rowan Phemister’s harp…”

— Limelight (4 stars)

“Jessica O’Donoghue, creates a parallel moment of expressive force as his daughter dying of syphilis.”

— Sydney Morning Herald (4 stars)

“Doing double duty, particular kudos goes to Jessica O’Donoghue who portrays the menacing Tarquinius and Jeremy Kleeman the chaste Lucretia. Both were stunningly able to embody the roles of other singers… You may never have the opportunity to hear a better cast than this.”

— Sounds Like Sydney

“Tarquinius receives smooth vocal representation from Nathan Lay and lynx-like stage portrayal from Jessica O’Donoghue, who sang Bianca with beguiling colour.”

— Sydney Morning Herald (4 stars)

“Jessica O’Donoghue has the rather difficult task of singing Lucretia’s pragmatic and devoted nurse Bianca, while performing the actions of Lucretia’s attacker. O’Donoghue handles this duality brilliantly.”

— Daily Review (4 stars)

“…the menacing Jessica O’Donoghue [whose] physical characterisation of Tarquinius was particularly excellent…”

— Bachtrack (4 stars)

“Special tribute is due to the brave, expressive and highly skilled performers…The two near-identical soprano Strongwomen—wonderfully sung and performed by Jessica O’Donoghue and Sarah Toth.”

— Real Time Arts