Biography
Jessica a was finalist in The Frederic Cox Award, The Maggie Teyte Award at The Royal Opera House and the Somerset Song Competition, where her performance of Frank Bridge’s “Love went a-Riding” was described by one of the judge’s on the panel as, “one of the best interpretations of the piece I have ever heard”. She was also a quarter-finalist at The Bromsgrove International Young Musician’s Competition.
She has been invited to sing as a soloist at The Bridgewater Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival and on the concert platform, has been a soloist in: Haydn’s Nelson Mass (conductor Roger Hamilton); Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonelle (Southwell Minster); Handel’s Israel in Egypt (Chester Cathedral); Mendelsohn’s Elijah (Bangor Cathedral), Elgar’s Sea Pictures (Kettle’s Yard) to name a few.
She is much in demand as a recitalist, having performed at venues such as Cadogan Hall, St John Smith’s Square and Kettle’s Yard Cambridge. As well as being an enthusiastic interpreter of song, her interests extend to chamber music and she was the soloist in Schoeberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Dartington Summer Music festival with The Mercury Quartet and Linda Hirst and in the 10 Blake Songs for voice and oboe by Ralph Vaughn Williams in The Kellaway Recital Series, Cambridge.
Jessica is also a keen composer, having performed many of her own compositions. She has premiered the works of Jeremy Thurlow, Ewan Campbell and Daniel Mateos and recently performed Judith Wier’s “Songs from the Exotic” for the composer herself.
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Next season, she will sing the lead role of Die Frau in the world premiere of Christian Diendorfer's Die Wand, Sesto in Clemenza di Tito, Second Maid in Elektra and Neris in Medee at the Landestheater, Linz, Austria.
Jessica is incredibly thankful to have been generously supported in the past by The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Trust, The Royal Northern College of Music, The Michael James Music Trust, The Kathleen Trust, The Altrusa Trust, The Seary Trust, The Mario Lanza Trust and Lord Haskel.
Please get in contact with Jessica to have a copy of her most updated biography or CV.
“A performer to look out for in the future” (The Telegraph and Argus). Up and coming mezzo-soprano, Jessica Eccleston, is quickly establishing herself as an exciting and versatile singer. Jessica is the Resident Solo Lyric Mezzo-Soprano at the Landestheater in Linz, Austria, where she was recently awarded the Landestheater’s 2018 “Jugendensemble Preis” for a young artist of great talent and promise. This year she has made her international solo debut in the roles of Maddalena in Rigoletto, Hansel in Hansel und Gretel, Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust and Olga in Eugene Onegin.
Closer to home, her performance as Ancella in Montemezzi’s L’amore dei Tre Re with Opera Holland Park was well received and described as “…the best thing in the whole show” (The Operatunist). She was also invited to give a solo recital at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, when she was a Young Artist on the Live Music Now Scotland Scheme with her group “Aleatoric Junction”.
Jessica began as a choral scholar at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge where she read Music. As a soloist she has broadcast, recorded and toured as far afield as China. After receiving multiple scholarship offers to conservatoires around the country, Jessica took up an entrance scholarship to study at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Alexander Gibson Opera School, where she studied with Helen Lawson. Prior to this she was awarded the Annie Ridyard Scholarship to study for a Masters degree in solo vocal performance at The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), under the tutelage of Jane Irwin.
While at the RNCM she participated in the Opera North/RNCM mentorship scheme and her performance of Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at RNCM was very well recieved. She has sung in numerous public masterclasses for artists such as Sarah Connoly, Julius Drake, Sir John Tomlinson and Susan Graham. As well as her work with Opera Holland Park, other operatic experience includes Nerone in Agrippina (RCS); Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte (RCS, British Youth Opera) and Cenerentola (Suffolk Opera).