Sheldon has been praised by the New York Times for singing “sublimely” and described as “superb, with a voice of penetrating beauty, precision and variegated colours” by the Sydney Morning Herald.

She started singing as a chorister with the Sydney Children's Choir up until she was about 16.

People from professional ensembles in Sydney would contact Lyn Williams, the choir's director, when they needed a child singer and she put Sheldon forward for some opportunities with some wonderful performers, “fantastic people who remain my friends”  and the ball started rolling from there.

“I was very lucky to have that support from her. Once I was in professional environments where I was spending time with people who had made music their whole life, I realised I wanted to pursue that life for myself,” she said.

Even though she has performed around the world one very special memory is of performing music by American composer John Zorn at the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival in 2013.

“We performed at midnight in a very old quarry dug beneath the Old City, to a very fun crowd who were lounging on cushions on the floor.

“Then we spent the rest of the night dancing to some wonderful North African bands in the moat of a citadel. It was a very heady time, total magic,” she said.

 Another one is working with Adena Jacobs and Sydney Chamber Opera on Kancheli's Exil, also in 2013.

“There was a freedom to the experience of creating that work together that felt like a real luxury and it has had an affect on all kinds of artistic decisions I've made downstream.” 

Sheldon is now based in New York and is able to pursue opportunities all around the world.

“It's very hard to know how things would have gone had I not moved away, but I like to think that if I had never left Australia I might still have been able to build a full and satisfying career, as plenty of my colleagues have.

“I didn't leave because I couldn't see anything for me here, rather I left in a spirit of adventure, artistic and otherwise. I didn't know if it was going to turn out to be a good decision but I was very much in the mood to take the risk. It's been important for me to always maintain work in Australia, despite being based in New York; that's meant I've never really felt that I completely left,” she said.

Jane’s latest album, Nature, was nominated in Australia’s AIR Awards for Best Independent Classical Album of 2014 and her 2012 release, North + South, was nominated for a 2013 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album.

Throughout 2013 Jane toured extensively for composer John Zorn’s 60th birthday celebrations, appearing at Lincoln Center Festival, New York’s Metropolitan Museum, London’s Barbican, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival, the Adelaide Festival in Australia, and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the UK.

Some of her outstanding performances have included Bach’s Magnificat for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Stockhausen’s Stimmung with Ekmeles in New York, the world premiere of Kati Agocs’s Divani Hayati with soprano Anne Harley in Los Angeles and the launch of Symbioses, a traveling contemporary chamber music series directed by Jane.

In 2015 she formed Thump and Wail, a trio with percussionist Dennis Sullivan and saxophonist Ed Rosenberg.

She has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Boston Camerata, Sydney Symphony, Halcyon, The Song Company, Synergy Percussion and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

She has also appeared in New York City Opera’s Vox Festival performing music of John Zorn, in the MATA Festival as a member of Ekmeles, and in the 2014 Resonant Bodies Festival.

In 2015 she was appointed as an Artistic Associate of Sydney Chamber Opera.

When asked what Australia could do to support artists and foster creativity she was very quick to point out that it ultimately lies with the individual. 

“Firstly, a healthy allocation of government funds to support the arts and a healthy organisation to distribute them is essential.

“Also, in countries like the US, where I live, a huge difference is made by the fact that the very wealthy see it as part of their responsibility to the rest of society to make significant contributions to the arts.

“Australia has some wonderful support from very passionate and generous private donors, but here they are the exception not the rule.

“Lastly, everyone should take their lead from people who still buy music online. Each time someone discovers a track on Spotify that they love but doesn't follow through by buying the artist's work on iTunes they're making a declaration that what we do is worth nothing to them.

“I'm not sure people are thinking of it this way, but it's the most accurate description of what's happening.

“A lot of artists who would previously have had an income from recordings are now working day jobs in other fields and spending less time making the work people claim to love.

“If these three things degrade – government support, committed philanthropy, and regular purchasing of recorded music by the general public – the long term consequences for the culture will be terrible,” she said.

She is in the country to perform as part of Sydney Chamber Opera’s revisiting of their history-making debut of Dostoevsky’s novel Notes from Underground at Carriageworks in Sydney.

Sheldon will be joined by James Wannan on viola and Jack Symonds on piano.

Together they will perform a combination of trio and duo pieces including Brahms’ Ophelia Songs, Gavin Bryars’ Laude inspired by medieval chants and the more contemporary Saariaho’s Changing Light.

Being an indoor winter concert at the Boyd Education Centre tickets are strictly limited and are available at www.bundanon.com.au.

This special event will be held on Sunday, August 28 with doors opening at 1.30pm. Tickets are $40 adults, $35 concession and children under 12 free.