biography
PC: Jessica Osber Photography
Soprano Rachel Doehring Jackson is a soloist and chamber artist based in Jersey City. She has been praised for her “absolutely loveable, endearing...remarkable” performances (Seen and Heard Intl.) of repertoire spanning the medieval through the contemporary.
Jackson kicked-off the ‘24-’25 season as a 2024 Tanglewood Music Center fellow. She enjoyed interpreting a wide variety of styles, ranging from Susanna in scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro with the TMC Orchestra, to Tania León’s In the Field, where she “soared above the ensemble” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). She also appeared in a recital of Spanish art song curated by Javier Arrebola, as well as selections from Schumann’s Spanisches Liederspiel, and a public masterclass on Handel arias with Les Arts Florissants founder William Christie.
A lover of Baroque and Renaissance music, Jackson was awarded fellowships at the 2025 American Bach Soloists Academy, led by Jeffrey Thomas, as well as Emmanuel Music’s 2025 Bach Institute, led by Pamela Dellal and Ryan Turner. This season she returns to the Berkshire Bach Society in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas as Belinda, having previously appeared as the soprano soloist in C.P.E Bach’s Magnificat. She has also appeared as a soloist and ensemble member with the period ensemble Theotokos, led by Doug Balliet. Jackson was one of four prize winners in the Bach Choir of Bethlehem & American Bach Society’s 2024 Biennial Bach Competition for Young American Singers. Previous seasons saw her as a soloist with the Albany Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society, under conductor David Alan Miller.
This season, Jackson has appeared in some of the nation’s finest choral ensembles, including Musica Sacra, the LA Philharmonic, the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine, and St. Bartholomew’s Choir, where she is a staff ensemble member and soloist. She made her Musica Sacra solo debut in Allegri’s Miserere, where she “performed the iconic high C with expressive tone and color; her final ‘cry’ was more human and celestial—personal, plaintive, and immediate” (New York Classical Review).
Jackson is an avid recitalist and is passionate about programming and producing. In 2024, she was a Semifinalist in the International Joy In Singing Competition and won Calliope’s Call Art Song Competition’s “Best Performance of a Non-Contemporary Work.” She has recently appeared in recital at Chamberfest Brown County, St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York City, and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, where she sang in a program of art song, musical theater, and operatic premieres by composers Alex Weiser, Joseph Rubenstein, Karen Siegel, Rachel J. Peters, and Jeremiah Lockwood. Jackson was previously the Producer of Resonant Bodies Festival, a festival of contemporary vocal music in Brooklyn, NY. The festival’s legacy album, featuring artists such as Julia Bullock, Caroline Shaw, Arooj Aftab, and Lucy Shelton, received critical acclaim from the New York Times. Excerpts of Jackson’s most recent self-produced recital aired on WCNY’s Fresh Ink.
Rachel Doehring Jackson holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the Bard College Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program, where she was mentored by Dawn Upshaw. When she is not singing, she enjoys running, baking, and spending time with farm animals. www.racheldoehringjackson.com
PC: Karl Rabe
