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An internationally award-winning independent artist and arts leader, Scottish-Australian Jenna Robertson is based on Wangerriburra country (Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia). Her current practice as a singer, writer, storyteller, creative director and producer leverages her diverse knowledge and vulnerability to change perceptions and inspire individual action on complex issues.  Her practice spans vocal performance and writing through to the creation, directing and producing of arts projects for stage, screen, full dome and audio. Jenna works across forms including opera, music, film, digital storytelling and multimedia. 

Her recent creative works include:

• ENDLESS UNIVERSE (full dome work, Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, 2022): A sixty-minute mind-expanding heart-opening experience for adults. 

• SPIRIT ORPHAN - OPERA (chamber opera, 2019-2025): ground-breaking chamber opera in development exploring her recovery from bushfire evacuation through a deep exploration of migrant identity. Jenna’s role in the opera is creator, librettist, performer and producer.

• SPIRIT ORPHAN - SHORT FILM (2020) Written and produced by Jenna in 2020 and directed by her frequent collaborator Salvador Cantellano has received awards and screenings in three continents.  Jenna is the protagonist in the film.

• UNRAVELLING THE VOICE (2022-3): Her multi-format, multi-genre debut album exploring her relationship with self-expression and her voice over her life. For release in 2023.

• RETURN TO PLANET EARTH (2021): a multi-media full dome work co-created for World Science Festival Brisbane in collaboration with the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium 2021 exploring the relationship between our humanity, Earth and the Universe (co-creator, writer and narrator)

• LA TRAVIATA IN CONCERT (Opera, Short Doco, 2021): As creative producer and soprano, Jenna has most recently created this community-engaged opera project in Western Australia exploring end of life and proposing new ways of producing grand opera in regional areas to maximise community outcomes.  She also produced a short documentary about the project, directed by the late Rob Castiglione.

• and more in development.

 

As an experienced soprano, Jenna has performed fourteen leading operatic roles and has appeared as soloist with Festivals and orchestras Australia-wide.  See her performance biography and CV for details.  

Jenna’s 12 years of arts leadership experience includes working with diverse stakeholders, partners and collaborators to create, curate and produce large-scale socially and community-engaged arts projects, and she has earned a reputation as Australia's leading independent creative producer in opera. 

 

To date, 868 artists, arts workers and community participants have been engaged in Jenna's projects, as well as 7840 audience members across Australia.  

 

Jenna is a current Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, a 2021 Australia Council for the Arts Future Leader and a popular reviewer/writer for The Music Trust (LoudMouth E-Zine).  Jenna was a board member for national arts peak body PAC Australia from Australia 2020-2022 where she advocated for independent artists and producers at the national level. 

 

She was Creative Producer and Principal Artist of The Opera Gala for the 2019 Albany Arts Festival, a bespoke operatic gala combining international, interstate, local artists and community participation. In 2019, Jenna also worked in the Programming team for the Queensland Music Festival on Opera at Jimbour and with Festival Directors on improving outcome reporting.  In 2011, Jenna was a founding member of opera company, OperaBox, in Perth, WA. From 2014, in addition to Chair of the Board and Producer positions, she took a leading role in the Artistic Directorship and growth of the company, solidifying OperaBox as “an innovative and professional contributor to the WA opera scene” (Noted, 2016). Through her leadership “Robertson made a significant contribution to supporting emerging singers and broadening the operatic repertoire for WA audiences” (Limelight Magazine, 2017).

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Jenna deeply believes in the power of creativity and art to make positive change in the world and passionately mentors and coaches artists, creatives and visionary leaders.  She graduated from the internationally recognised Beautiful You Life Coaching Course in 2022, where she was nominated for Trainee of the Year.
 

She was one of thirty selected globally for the inaugural Beth Morrison Projects 2020 Producer Academy (global leaders in contemporary opera producing, New York, USA). and was a Generate GC (Situate - Art in Festivals) artist from 2019-2020, receiving mentoring support in the creation of new work from Australia's top independent artists.  Other training includes dance theatre making with Danielle Micich and Ghenoa Gela in Force Majeure, Sydney, 2020 INCITE Masterclass and the NIDA Open Directors Studio (Stage & Film) in Sydney in 2017.

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Before choosing full-time work in the arts in 2015, she worked part-time in the arts while also working for a decade internationally in engineering (2004-2015). There she won some of the most prestigious industry awards and developed her strength and reputation in both leading people to deliver large and complex projects, and in public speaking and facilitation. Jenna is a chartered Chemical Engineer through IChemE and graduated from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh with an MEng in Chemical Engineering as well as receiving a Music Scholarship for the duration of her studies providing tuition and performance experience.

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Notable Education, Training Programs & Awards

• 2022 Beautiful You Coaching Academy, Life Coaching Course (Nominated for 2022 Trainee of the Year Award)

• 2021-2027 Doctor of Musical Arts, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Brisbane

• 2021 Australia Council for the Arts Future Leaders Program

• 2020 Producer Academy, Beth Morrison Projects, New York, USA (Global leaders in contemporary opera producing and touring)

• 2020 Cultural Awareness & Truth Telling, The Wellbeing Connexion, Melbourne. 7 weeks immersive training in the history of colonisation of Australia and continued impacts on indigenous people through to today.

• 2020 Force Majeure INCITE Masterclass in their dance theatre making methodologies.

• 2019 Generate GC, Artist Labs.  2 x immersive labs with some of Australia' s most successful independent artists sharing their practice as part of the Generate GC program.

• 2017 Directors Studio (NIDA Open), National Institute for Dramatic Arts, Sydney.

• 2014 AIMS Opera Studio, Graz, Austria

• 2013 Winner, CME Women in Resources Awards, Outstanding Young Woman in Resources Award

• 2006 MEng Chemical Engineering with Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

• 2006 Diploma in Industrial Training, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

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To read her performance biography, click here.

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(C) Nov 2022