Jess Green Biography

Jess Green (AKA Pheno) is an Australian multi-disciplinary composer, guitarist, vocalist and educator, born in Canberra ACT and now based on Darkinjung Country on the NSW Central Coast. Her career spans more than twenty years across jazz, contemporary music, experimental pop, theatre, dance, television and visual arts, establishing her as a genre-defying artist whose work moves fluidly between improvisation, composition and collaboration.

As a performer, Jess has toured and collaborated with leading Australian artists including The Catholics, The Vampires, Sandy Evans, Jim Conway, Renee Geyer, Laura Jean, Katie Noonan, Georgia Mooney, Justine Clarke, Bree van Reyk, Nick Wales and Ensemble Offspring. Performing under the pseudonym Pheno, she has also supported international artists including Joan As Policewoman and The New Pornographers.

Jess has released a diverse catalogue of recordings including The Singing Fish, The New Dynamites, Tinkly Tinkly, Dragon Year, Strange Attractors (with Canadian drummer Dylan van der Schyff), and most recently Even Quiet Embers Carry Fire (with Dylan van der Schyff and Sandy Evans). Her current projects include the cross-cultural jazz ensemble Shakti Spirit led by Sandy Evans, the improvisational duo Strange Attractors, The Fretbenders, an acoustic guitar quartet featuring Aaron Flower, Ben Hauptmann and Guy Strazz, and her contemporary project Psychomotor. Her art-pop works released as Pheno further showcase her distinctive voice as a songwriter and producer.

Jess has composed extensively for theatre, dance and visual arts, with commissions and collaborations including the Australian Art Orchestra, Sydney Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Luminescence Chamber Singers, Patricia Piccinini, and visual artist Nell. Notable works include Dream Universe for the Australian Art Orchestra, I Heard You Sing for Luminescence Chamber Singers, and a series of major collaborations with Patricia Piccinini, including We Are the Skywhales for the National Gallery of Australia's Skywhale project, and the large-scale installation A Miracle Constantly Repeated for Melbourne Rising.

Career highlights include performing at the Closing Ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, serving as Composer-in-Residence for the 2019 Canberra International Music Festival, writing a commissioned work for the 2019 Australian Women in Music Awards, and collaborating across a wide range of interdisciplinary projects spanning music, visual arts and performance.

Recent projects include the premiere of the children's music theatre work The Girl Who Glows, for which Jess was a key creative and performer, with a NSW tour planned for 2027. She was also commissioned for Luminescence's recent project Luminescence and the Machine, collaborating with acclaimed US composer and producer William Brittelle and Cameron Beauchamp from Roomfull of Teeth. She is also developing a new theatre work The Signal Makers, commissioned by The Street Theatre with playwright Emile Collyer and undertakening collaborations with choreographer Sara Black.

Alongside her creative practice, Jess is a Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Program Leader of the Equity in Jazz (Gender) initiative. In 2025 she was featured as an ABC Artist in Residence, with two tracks iselected for ABC Jazz's Women in Jazz '26 compilation. In both 2025 and 2026 she was invited to guest program SIMA's Sydney International Women's Jazz Festival.

Selected Quotes

"Brilliantly crafted compositions."
The Sydney Morning Herald

"It all hangs beautifully together in a deceptively simple manner, but you are always aware there is a shrewd compositional mind behind it."
Jazz Australia

"A rad chick with an electric guitar and killer vocals."
Christina Donoghue, ArtsHub (31 January 2022)

"Green's virtuosity bears comparison with the work of Mary Halvorson; but most of all Strange Attractors conjures the spirit of experimental guitarist Derek Bailey."
Rhythms Magazine

For more information on the Pheno project head to: Pheno