Jacqueline Porter holds an honours degree in Music Performance and a Bachelor of Arts (Italian) from the University of Melbourne and was the recipient of the 2010 Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust Scholarship.
Equally at home on the operatic stage and the concert platform, Jacqueline appears regularly with Australia’s major symphony orchestras and choral societies. She has worked with celebrated conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Egarr and Oleg Caetani, and her recitals and concerts are frequently broadcast on ABC Classic FM. Her 2020 return to Sydney Symphony to perform Mahler Symphony No. 4 and orchestrated Schubert songs with Sir Donald Runnicles, has now been rescheduled for 2021.
Jacqueline has most recently been heard in Mozart’s Requiem, Solveig’s Song (Grieg) and Vocalise (Rachmaninov), and Messiah all with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; Marriage of Figaro highlights (Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra); St. Matthew Passion (Melbourne Bach Choir); Mass in Time of War (Haydn) and Mass No. 5 (Schubert) with Heidelberg Choral Society; Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s Opera Gala; 1st Niece in Peter Grimes with Sydney Symphony and in recital for Music in the Round and Melbourne Recital Centre’s Salon series.
Her opera roles include Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro), Despina (Così fan tutte), Drusilla, Virtù and Pallade (L’incoronazione di Poppea); L’Amour (Orpheé et Eurydice); Saskia and Hendrickje Stoffels (Rembrandt’s Wife); Clorinda (Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda) and Momus (Der Streit Zwischen Phoebus und Pan) (Baroque Triple Bill) for Victorian Opera and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) for State Opera South Australia.
Jacqueline has performed Mahler Symphony No. 4 with both Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Mozart's “Litany of the Blessed Sacrament” for Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Fauré Requiem and Beethoven’s Mass in C for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; Haydn Nelson Mass and Mozart Vespers at the Woodend Winter Arts Festival; Purcell’s King Arthur at Brisbane Baroque; St. Matthew Passion for Melbourne Bach Choir; Jephtha for Canberra Choral Society; The Vow (Handel in the Theatre) Judas Maccabeus (Heidelberg Choral Society) and an Art Song recital with Aura Go in the Salon at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
In 2018 Jacqueline featured at the Woodend Winter Arts Festival, sang the title role in Susanna for Handel In The Theatre, Canberra, Beethoven 9 for Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Brahms Requiem for Festival of Voices in Hobart, Hayden Nelson Mass and Mozart Requiem for Canberra Choral Society, Mozart Requiem for Melbourne Bach Choir and recitals at the Tasmanian Chamber Music Festival. Her 2017 engagements included the role of the Princess in Respighi’s The Sleeping Beauty for Victorian Opera, (also performed at Dark Mofo, Hobart) performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Exsultate Jubilate, Thaïs and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9), Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (A Night in Vienna), Brahms Requiem (Victoria Chorale), and Handel Salve Regina in St Paul’s Cathedral (with the University of Melbourne).
Jacqueline's extensive concert repertoire also features Bach Passions and Cantatas, Berlioz Les Nuits d’été, Britten Les Illuminations, Enescu Vox Maris, Haydn Maria Theresa Mass, Mozart Coronation Mass and Requiem and Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony and Serenade to Music.
Career highlights have been Grieg’s Peer Gynt and Prokofiev’s Ugly Duckling (Sydney Symphony Orchestra also released on CD); Rachmaninoff’s The Bells and Mozart/Haydn arias (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra); Last Night of the Proms (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra); Villa Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5 with renowned cellist Jian Wang and the cellists of the Sydney Symphony; an Adelaide Symphony Orchestra New Years’ Eve broadcast; Mélisande’s Song in Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande Suite with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Sydney Symphony Orchestra; the roles of L’Euridice and La Tragedia in Peri’s L’Euridice and Bach’s B Minor Mass (Woodend Winter Arts Festival); Mozart Exsultate Jubilate and Haydn Harmoniemesse for the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival; recitals with Caroline Almonte and the Australian String Quartet for the Dunkeld Festival of Music; Cleopatra in Alexander Balus (Handel) with Canberra Choral Society; Tavener’s Song of the Angel with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for the Dark MOFO Festival; concerts with Renaissance ensemble, La Compañia; Opera in the Vineyard with David Hobson; a recital of Schumann Lieder for ABC radio and a performance at the Melbourne Town Hall with German organist, Joachim Neugart, featuring 20th Century works for soprano and organ.
Biography dated October 2020. Not to be altered without permission.
