Janelle Colquhoun


Location: Brisbane, QLD

Challenge: Blind

Website: www.salubriousproductions.com

Janelle took music, dance and drama lessons, performed in choirs, stage shows, dance revues and played trumpet in concert and jazz bands before winning a scholarship to study opera at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. She also learnt the commercial side of music performing with choirs and ensembles and managing her vocal quartet. In her post-graduate year, she moonlighted at World Expo’88, singing with her a capella vocal quartet The Metways and entertaining guests with her comedy character Janelley Melba – Roller-skating Opera Singer.

At the end of Expo she accepted a full-time contract with the Australian Opera, where among highlights, she sang in a trio with Dame Joan Sutherland in her farewell season of Les Huegnots. Two years later she moved to Europe and sang with the Frankfurt Kammeroper, Darmstadt Oper before accepting a full-time contract with Oper Frankfurt.

Six years later, at age 29 due to the complications of Type 1 diabetes, Janelle went blind and returned to Brisbane.

Refusing to give up her dreams, She auditioned and sang with the Opera Queensland; sang the role of High Priestess in Michael Edgley’s production of Aida in the ANZ Stadium; was a principal in the IHOS Opera/Access Arts experimental opera "The Divine Kiss" in the Brisbane Festival and in Hobart; formed Jazopra, the piano/vocal duo with the late New Zealand jazz pianist, Jann Rutherford, the a capella blind soprano vocal trio "The Three Muses"; self-produced and recorded 3 solo CD’s with music ranging from opera to jazz; sang the Strauss "Four Last Songs" with the Brisbane Sinfonia; was honoured in 2006 to be invited by the past Queensland Governor and Australian Governor-General, The Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce to present a solo recital at Queensland Government House; sang solo spots in the QPAC Choir Showcase Concerts in the QPAC Concert Hall in 2012 and 2013; and in April 2013 she performed two one-hour solo performances at the re-dedication opening weekend of the refurbished Brisbane City Hall.

She has been invited as a singer, speaker, MC, workshop facilitator and media spokesperson to concerts, conferences, festivals and events throughout Australia and overseas including Paris (2003), Bermuda (2004), Seoul (2005), Chicago (2008), Montreal (2009), Switzerland (2010), Dubai (2011), London (2012), Auckland (2013) and Berlin (February 2014).

In 1999, Janelle established Salubrious Productions, an entertainment and production agency specialising in professional artists with a disability. She has produced over 1300 mainstream and disability events, including concerts, art exhibitions, launches, pantomimes, cabarets and a film. She has also held numerous contracts with the Brisbane City Council, including the BCC Live-in-the-Library Series 2002-2012, The BCC June-July and Christmas School Holiday Library Series 2004-2012, the World Music Lunchtime Concert Series since 2012, organised the classical musicians for the Opening Weekend Celebrations of the refurbished Brisbane City Hall 2013, and has held the contract to produce the BCC Classical Lunchtime Concert Series since 2002.

Janelle has been appointed and invited onto five ngo and 9 government boards and committees in the areas of arts, health and disability, including peer grant assessor on the BCC Local Arts, Cultural & Festivals panel (2000-2003), Arts Queensland Panel for the performing arts (2003-2007) and Australia Council Arts and Disability grants panel (2014). Currently she is also on the Health Consumers Queensland committee and is the consumer rep on the Queensland Health Diabetes Clinical Network.

Janelle has taken writing, small business and marketing courses, and facilitated many arts workshops, including arts marketing and copywriting. She works as a producer, agent, speakers’ manager, speaker, MC, and classical and jazz singer, receives work as a writer and editor for magazines and Queensland government departments, has had over 100 of her arts, health and disability articles published and has also won awards and been included in anthologies for her short stories. In her "spare time" she is Convenor and newsletter editor of Sisters in Crime Queensland, the worldwide female crime writing network, and is working on the second draft of her crime novel featuring a blind protagonist and her guide/police dog Spike.


Janelle Colquhoun, soprano opera singer and Finalist in the 1990 ASC Finals Concert