Reviews
The Art of Disappearing CD, Kammerklang
"Like many works in the lieder tradition, The Art of Disappearing is personal and contemplative, telling stories of reminiscence, loss and grief. Holland-Batt’s words are given life by mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong, co-founder of Halcyon. Her beautifully measured delivery and bell-like purity works with the strings so well that at times it seems all might be emanating from the same breath. This is a reflection of the close partnership between Lam, Duck-Chong and the Geist Quartet, whose nuanced and thoughtful performances are indicative of a real depth of involvement.”
Lisa MacKinney, Limelight October 2019
“Halcyon’s musical director began the evening with a focussed delivery of Catherine Milliken’s recent work for solo mezzo soprano, Kazoku (2019). Duck-Chong’s performance included her expressive face, natural stage presence of a storyteller and flexible arsenal of vocal timbre across the work’s tiny text material. This evocative short work to open the concert suggested mountains, trees, and togetherness within a potentially dangerous environment. The cornucopia of shapes for vocal utterance and the emotion hinged on each made this a stunning opening and suggested special communication to follow.”
Paul Nolan, Sydney Arts Guide October 2019
The Art of Disappearing CD, Kammerklang
“Duck-Chong’s beautifully rounded voice is incisive yet gentle and she sings with impeccable diction. Amply suited to contemporary style, her voice joins the quartet as another instrument, straddling wild leaps in register and unerring in pitch. (and maybe this…) ….The instrumentalists and the singer are in finely tuned sympathy with one another. Jenny Duck-Chong is an experienced exponent of new music. Along with her ensemble Halcyon, she has done an invaluable amount to build and perpetuate a canon of contemporary Australian song. The Art of Disappearing is yet another milestone in this litany of achievements. ”
Shamistha de Soysa - Sounds Like Sydney (2019)
Giving Voice: From the Hungry Waiting Country CD, Halcyon
“Large leaps are met with laser like accuracy of pitch and consistency of tone by Jenny Duck-Chong. ”
Shamistha de Soysa - Sounds Like Sydney (2018)
This Moment Must Be Sung: Chamber Songs of Andrew Schultz CD, Halcyon
“This moment must be sung is performed by two well-matched voices, experts in new music and who have an established history of performing and creating new music together. The innovative instrumental combinations and compositional techniques create moments when the voices and instruments are indistinguishable – simply extensions of each other – equal partners, making it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. ”
Shamistha de Soysa - Sounds Like Sydney (2018)
Margaret Sutherland Judith Wright Settings: The Poet’s Voice, Halcyon
“The abstract rhythm and metre of Wright’s poems were equally matched by the dissonance of the intense, bold, long flighted melody that threw out a challenge to Duck-Chong which she easily mastered. She found a balance between voice and words and her diction was excellent so as to wring the emotion from the poems.”
Ben Apfelbaum, Sydney Arts Guide (2016)
Kerry Andrew fruit songs: Women's Work, Halcyon
“Jenny Duck-Chong sang Kerry Andrew's witty, capricious Fruit Songs for voice and guitar (Ken Murray) with apt archness and brilliant timing.”
Peter McCallum - The Sydney Morning Herald (2014)
Giving Voice, Halcyon
“One of the most important and satisfying concerts in Sydney for a very long time....Duck-Chong sang beautifully, pointing the texts and adding meaning with perfectly placed nuances.”
Alan Holley - Classikon (2014)
A Century of Song, recital with pianist Sally Whitwell
“Few of our singers have as broad a repertoire – early music to avant-garde – and as comfortingly pleasing a vocal tone and manner of delivery as mezzo soprano Jenny Duck-Chong. Her recital, with wholly accordant piano partner Sally Whitwell, in St Andrew’s Cathedral late last month, made a remarkable, though not unexpected, impact – and not only because she managed to pack more than 30 songs into 90 minutes, but also because she sang many from memory, and sounded confident singing in French, Spanish and English."
Fred Blanks - The North Shore Times (2008)
George Benjamin Upon Silence: B3, Halcyon
“With the sepulchral strings making "no more sound than the mice make", mezzo Jenny Duck-Chong gave a superbly human and musically accurate impersonation of creativity on the brink."
Graeme Skinner - Sydney Morning Herald (2008)
Kaija Saariaho Miranda's Lament from The Tempest Songbook: 10th birthday concert, Halcyon
“The delicate forest footsteps and intricate, hushed beauty of 'Miranda's Lament' from Kaija Saariaho's The Tempest Songbook drew another wonderful performance from Duck-Chong."
Benjamin Miller - resonate (2008)
10th birthday concert, Halcyon: Luciano Berio's Folksongs
“Luciano Berio's Folk Songs, for example, may sound deceptively simple — after all, they're just folk songs, aren't they? — until you realise they were written for the legendary Cathy Berberian, accompanied by a highly artful orchestration. So when Duck-Chong and her classy band take up the challenge and make these songs their own, it is an impressive and hugely enjoyable achievement."
Harriet Cunningham - Sydney Morning Herald (2008)
Györgi Ligeti Sippàl, Dobbàl, Nadihegedüvel: Tehillim, Halcyon, Synergy Percussion, Ensemble Offspring
“Jenny Duck-Chong took on the acrobatics of the vocal part with a gleam in her eye and a glow in her voice."
Harriet Cunningham - Sydney Morning Herald (2007)
Sydney Guitar trio recital
“The extraordinarily versatile and gifted mezzo soprano"
Fred Blanks - The North Shore Times (2006)
James Macmillan Raising Sparks: Raising Sparks, Halcyon
“Duck-Chong was vivid, dramatic and powerful here, holding together its dark narrative with inner intensity and urgency.
Peter McCallum - Sydney Morning Herald (2003)
Ross Edwards The Hermit of Green Light & Maninya V: Earth Jewels, Halcyon
“In this work, and in Maninya V in the second half, also by Edwards, Duck-Chong sang with a lower register, dark and firm, while the top range glowed with palpability and presence,"
Peter McCallum - Sydney Morning Herald (2003)
Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas: Jubilate Singers & Willoughby Symphony Orchestra
“Duck-Chong was a Dido to die for and eventually with, singing with great fervour and beauty and acting effectively."
David Gyger - Opera-Opera (2001)
Luciano Berio Folksongs: Music for Voices and Instruments & Sydney Alpha Ensemble concert
“I have never heard her sing better, especially in the geographic peregrinations of Berio’s arrangements: she had a great affinity with every mood of this chameleon score, from the skittish to the melancholy. Music of great refreshment."
John Carmody - The Sun-Herald (1998)
Maurice Ravel Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé: Music for Voices and Instruments & Sydney Alpha Ensemble concert
“...sung with just the right touch of trance and shadow...a mind expanding concert.”
Fred Blanks - The Northern Herald (1998)
Claudo Monteverdi Vespers of the Blessed Virgin
“Her duets with (Jane)Edwards were beautiful and the brief snatches of her on her own whetted the appetite for more.”
Laurie Strachan - The Sun-Herald (1997)
French song recital with pianist Gabriella Pusner
“Mezzo-soprano Jenny Duck-Chong, always an exceptionally intuitive and understanding singer, found her way very surely into the heart and soul of songs by Poulenc, Satie, Debussy, Duparc and Fauré...she was equally impressive in the epigrammatic humour of Poulenc’s Le Bestiaire, the climactic love cry of Fauré’s La Lune Blanche and the refined intensity of Duparc’s Chanson Triste.”
Fred Blanks - The Northern Herald (1996)
Luciano Berio Folksongs: Opera Mode
“Jenny Duck-Chong’s performance of Luciano Berio’s Folksongs ... was a real gem of the art of performance based largely on personal charisma. All she did was stand there and sing but Duck-Chong commanded constant attention – partly through the excellence of her singing...and partly because she managed so extraordinarily to turn the mechanics of singing into an art form in itself. Duck-Chong’s performance proved that some essentially concert music can provide a significant theatrical experience when it is delivered as brilliantly as it was on this occasion.”