A summary of my career to date
I began my musical life as a chorister at Dunfermline Abbey, taking piano lessons from the age of eight and finishing my High School education with a music scholarship to St Leonard’s School, St Andrews. A gap year or two elapsed while I played for local musical theatre groups and grew into the organist and choir director role at Beath and Cowdenbeath North Churches.
During my time at the University of Glasgow I studied with Patricia MacMahon and obtained a BMus (hons). During my time there, I held a Lanfine choral scholarship and the Currie studentship for organ, as well as graduating with the Hague prize for performance and Cramb travel bursary. Having picked up some bassoon skills on the way, I also played in the University’s Kelvin Ensemble and was Chairperson of the Orchestra.
I completed a PgDip, MMus (performance), MMus (opera) and MOpera in 2011 with Kathleen McKellar Ferguson at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, with assistance from the RSAMD scholarship trust and generous support from the Donald Dewar Arts Awards and the Fenton Arts Trust. During my Opera School years I won the John Ireland Prize for voice and piano with Adam Laslett and the Tony and Tania Webster Prize for Russian Song, accompanied by Seho Lee.
Operatic Roles include Lady Billows (Britten/Albert Herring), Filipjevna (Tchaikovsky/Eugene Onegin), Gertrude (Humperdinck/Hansel & Gretel), Waltraute (Wagner/Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung), Erda (Wagner/Das Rheingold and Siegfried), Second Norn (Wagner/Götterdämmerung), Fricka (Wagner/Das Rheingold) Marcellina (Mozart/Figaro) and Meg Page (Verdi/Falstaff).
Roles performed in concert include Amneris (Verdi/Aida), Klytaemnestra (Strauss/Elektra), Die Amme (Strauss/Frau ohne Schatten) and Brünnhilde (Wagner/Die Walküre). Chorus work has included Scottish Opera, Opera North and various return visits to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to perform with RCS voices, including most recently at the Edinburgh International Festival.
I made my Proms debut in 2010 with the BBCSSO and Donald Runnicles and was a Britten Pears Young Artist in 2011 in their production of Albert Herring, double cast with Dame Felicity Lott. I have performed Janice Kerbel’s Doug at the 2016 Turner Prize exhibition and in many locations since, and Cally Spooner’s ‘Damning evidence illicit behaviour seemingly insurmountable great sadness terminated in any manner’ at British Art Show 8 at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
An avid lover of the recital genre, I have been performing with Maryam Sherhan for the last decade. We are proud Live Music Now Alumni and have given recitals at the National Museum of Scotland, Music at Paxton, Shetland Arts, Westbourne music, and the Usher Hall and have participated in residencies at and Aberdeen International Youth Festival and at EMS creative exchange in Crear. We made our Edinburgh International Festival debut in 2016 performing Wagner and Strauss lieder as part of the songlines project.
Teaching is a big part of my life and I have always had a number of private students. I have taught on an ad hoc basis at the RCS Junior Conservatoire for over ten years and have been part time at Glasgow City Council as a singing and piano instructor for the last two years, moving to a full time permanent role there in August 2020. More information is on my teaching page.
I am the Organist at Wallneuk North Church in Paisley, having previously been engaged at Beath and Cowdenbeath North Churches, Broomknoll Parish in Airdrie, and Colston Wellpark in the North of Glasgow. I run a concert series from the Church and have a faithful busy choir.
Jemma Brown 