Jessica Walker Selected Reviews Pat Kirkwood is Angry 59E59 Theaters, New York (June 2014) “Should Kirkwood be looking down from the showbiz heavens, she would be anything but riled by Ms Walker’s warm, evocative consideration of her career: a loving tribute from one singular talent to another.” – Charles Isherwood, New York Times “Walker, a powerful soprano with a commanding stage presence and a piercing intelligence, rivets one's attention… If Pat Kirkwood is angry, she is never dull, not even for a minute, and Walker's show casts a fascinating light on an underappreciated talent.” – Lighting & Sound America “Angry or sunny, Walker knows how to deliver a song with the right emotion… I enjoyed every song she sang – her voice is exquisite… Learning about Kirkwood’s life is interesting, but listening to Walker, who has sung roles across Europe, is even better.” – Life Upon The Sacred Stage “Jessica Walker’s lovely musical memoir of the star’s life and career…But enough about Miss Kirkwood, — let us turn to the immense talent of Miss Walker as she deftly guides us on this intriguing journey. Not only is her original script a carefully crafted and fascinating exploration of this little-known saga, but also, thanks to her beautiful singing voice, the show comprises a virtual smorgasbord of wonderful songs associated with Kirkwood, and skilfully inserted in this production to gently guide the advancing plot.” – The People’s Critic “Walker has a stunning voice that she knows exactly how to use… Walker delivers the goods musically speaking… Guess Who I Saw Today by Murray Grand and Elisse Boyd– a song that is over performed and often bludgeoned – is delivered with such simplicity that your heart cracks into a bazillion little pieces on the spot. And her Begin The Beguine is steeped in pathos so deep you can feel it all the way down to your toes. Walker weaves serious magic when she sings.” – Front Row Center The Importance of Being Earnest NI Opera (October 2013) “The individual performances are faultlessly precise. Aoife Miskelly as Cecily and Jessica Walker as Gwendoline hurl themselves around the stage with selfless enthusiasm.” – Andrew Clements, The Guardian ***** “McDonald drew similarly sharp, observant performances from the other singers, among whom the mezzo Jessica Walker’s shock-headed, punky Gwendolen Fairfax made a particularly sparky impression.” – Terry Blain, Opera Magazine “Jessica Walker’s robust fashion-conscious Gwendolen was also extremely memorable.” – Andrew Mellor, Opera Now An Eye for an Eye Bath International Music Festival (May 2013) “What they have created is a charming musical nugget, a small, but perfectly formed treat, a delicious cupcake of a production. The two woman cast of Jessica Walker and Harriet Williams, both consummate vocalists and actresses, had to play the parts of the two maids as well as their two murder victims, exchanging personalities at will. It was evident that both women took much delight in playing out their roles – and they sang and danced, harmonised and soloed marvelously – and for such a dark subject matter, delightfully.” – Laura Dunlap, Listomania Bath Rayfield Allied Member of the International Artist Southbank House, Managers’ Association Black Prince Road, London SE 1 7 SJ , UK Rayfield Allied acts as agent only and can www.rayfieldallied.com accept no responsibility as principal E-mail [email protected] Telephone +44 (0) 20 3176 5500 Facsimile +44 (0) 700 602 4143 Jessica Walker Selected Reviews The Girl I Left Behind Me 59E59 Theaters, New York (May 2013) “Ms. Walker herself is certainly a bewitching performer… a pure, bright soprano of such melting beauty I think I could listen to it forever.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times “Walker, a gifted chanteuse” – The New Yorker “Jessica Walker pays tribute to male impersonators in her winning show The Girl I Left Behind Me.” – New York Post “Possessing a warm and inviting aura as well as talents and abilities as both singer and performer that are indisputable, Ms. Walker is a pleasure.” – Stage and Cinema “The 59E59 Theater does a great job of bringing unique performers to its occasional Cabaret venue, and they have hit another solid winner with The Girl I Left Behind Me . It would be tragedy for me not to acknowledge a beautiful encore. Ms. Walker and Mr. Atkins did a fantastic job on Take Me Home – a little heard Tom Waits number from the little seen movie, One From The Heart. It was performed in a manner that left me a little breathless. Bravo”. – Reviews off Broadway Mercy and Grand: The Tom Waits Project, Spitalfields Music Winter Festival “Originally presented by Opera North, this unlikely but gripping project merits the wider audience that this live recording will bring. Gavin Bryars and his team take the songs of Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan, and present them incongruously but superbly sung by the pure-voiced English mezzo Jess Walker, accompanied by a wheezy circus-style band that features harmonium, accordion, musical saw and trumpet=violin. Some Kurt Weill/ Bertolt Brecht ditties and Gypsy dances make perfect complements.” – Richard Morrison, The Times “Walker makes no attempt to replicate Waits's own famously gravelly delivery. She sings, however, with terrific passion, gliding with ease from the sardonic Little Drop of Poison to the knowing bitterness of Weill's Ballad of Sexual Dependency , and doing heartbreaking things with Whistle Down the Wind and Georgia Lee .” - Tim Ashley , The Guardian “Walker may be primarily an opera singer, but her cabaret instinct is wonderfully sure: she took command of the proceedings from the moment she sauntered up the aisle, and held us riveted from the outset with ‘Little Drop of Poison’. Her warm clean sound may be a million miles from Waits’s growl, but she evoked wintry pathos with ‘Alice’ and ‘Whistle Down the Wind’ just as effectively; Weill’s ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’ never sounded more bleak.” – Michael Church, The Independent “Waits was present merely in spirit, however, and his gravelly seafarer’s bark was replaced in Shoreditch Church by Jessica Walker’s agile and dramatic mezzo-soprano…Walker extracted some rich lyrical colouring from Waits’s sea-shantyish Whistle Down The Wind …Pony , for instance, was a slow country ballad coloured with slide guitar and backwoods fiddle, with Walker squeezing soulfulness from the plaintive lyric.” - Adam Sweeting, The Telegraph Rayfield Allied Member of the International Artist Southbank House, Managers’ Association Black Prince Road, London SE 1 7 SJ , UK Rayfield Allied acts as agent only and can www.rayfieldallied.com accept no responsibility as principal E-mail [email protected] Telephone +44 (0) 20 3176 5500 Facsimile +44 (0) 700 602 4143 Jessica Walker Selected Reviews Tete a Tete Opera Festival “Accompanied by a combo of oboe, cello and percussion, Jessica Walker stylishly incarnated one of the unborn as a slinky cabaret star.” - Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph The Coronation Of Poppea, OperaUpClose "Jessica Walker's Nero gleams and suggests a searching mind gone wrong. [Her] final duet is wondrous." - Kieron Quirke, Evening Standard "...Jessica Walker, a Nero of swaggering charisma." - Hannah Nepil, Financial Times "[Zoe] Bonner’s refined artistry is matched by that of Rebecca Caine as Ottavia, Jessica Walker as Nero, and Martin Nelson..." - Michael Church, The Independent "The two leads - Zoe Bonner as Poppea and Jessica Walker as Nero - floated their poisonous relationship with erotic panache, and the unassailable exclusivity of their union gripped from the start. Walker...caught his [Nero's] capricious loopiness well...her singing sustained an impressive intensity throughout." - Peter Reed, Opera Magazine The Girl I Left Behind Me “and informed by the lovely pure voice and wittily knowing personality of the mezzo-soprano opera singer and cross-over artist Jessica Walker, this 80-minute piece is a drolly celebratory yet also piercingly poignant one-woman guide to a neglected chapter in showbiz and lesbian history” - Paul Taylor, Independent “movingly conveys the pathos of these women's lives: their desperate disavowal of "mannish" women, their confusion at receiving love letters from other women. Fans then were as inscrutable as the performers – although, watching Walker, you appreciate what fun they had.” - Maddy Costa, The Guardian A Quiet Girl "One really has the impression she is singing to an audience…one can imagine her walking among café tables, holding sway. Authenticity without emulation, the voice is clear, flowing, emotive…her diction throughout is perfect whether English, German, French or even cockney" - Antonia Couling, The Singer "Jessica Walker is an outstanding exponent of uncovering the inherent drama of this oeuvre…a blissful operatic singer giving meticulous measure to some unusual choices" - Mark Shenton, The Stage "Jessica Walker is an exciting discovery. Having just seen her touchingly vulnerable Hansel, her cabaret act came as a jolt but firmly established her versatility. The voice has a tonally centred vibrancy, a cutting gleam where necessary, which she can fine down to hushed, pure, soft singing. She moves between throwaway, spoken commentary or asides and the vocal line with the ease of a seasoned cabaret trooper...a wonderful evening" - David Blewitt, The Stage Rayfield Allied Member of the International Artist Southbank House, Managers’ Association Black Prince Road, London SE 1 7 SJ , UK Rayfield Allied acts as agent only and can www.rayfieldallied.com