Jessica Gethin was listed by the Australian Financial Review as one of Australia's 'Top 100 Women of Influence' for 2015. She was also a finalist in the Arts & Culture Award category of the 2019 Western Australian Of The Year Awards.
Ms Gethin began her career as an accomplished violinist, graduating from the WA Academy of Performing Arts in 2002 with a Bachelor of Music Performance and received the Faith Court Scholarship Prize for Performance. Since then, she has performed on stages throughout Europe, USA, UK, Canada, Asia and Australia.
Ms Gethin spent five years on the podium in the exclusive Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program, receiving a scholarship to study under internationally renowned conductors led by Maestro Christopher Seaman with the Adelaide, Queensland, Victorian, West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. In 2011, she commenced her first official appointment as chief conductor of the Perth Symphony Orchestra (Western Australia) and co-artistic director of the Perth Chamber Orchestra in 2013. In 2015, Ms Gethin won the Brian Stacey Award for an Emerging Australian Conductor, and was presented with the $10,000 award to further expand her work on the podium. In 2015, she was one of six Inaugural Fellows, chosen internationally from over 27 countries, accepted into the Institute of Women Conductors with the Dallas Opera (USA). Other guest engagements in 2015 included her role as assistant conductor to Brad Cohen for WA Opera's production of Faust, Conductor in Residence for the WA Youth Chamber Music camp, MD for 2013 X Factor winner Dami Im and Artistic Director for the Perth Chamber Orchestra series. 2016 saw Ms Gethin become guest conductor for OperaBox's April tour of Donizetti's 'Anna Bolena' along with other symphonic and chamber engagements.
She was awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship in 2016, and was presented with The Mr and Mrs Gerald Frank New Award for 'Performance Excellence in Classical Music' to enable further study and mentoring in the Untied States and United Kingdom in 2017.
Ms Gethin was appointed principal conductor for the West Australian Ballet in May 2023. She has worked with the organisation since August 2019. She has also been the head of orchestral studies and conducting at Edith Cowan University since December 2022, and a music lecturer at the WA Academy of Performing Arts since 2009.
