A charcoal drawing of singer Mama Alto by artist Chloe Neath, with a gold leaf shining background

Mama Alto is a jazz singer, cabaret artiste, and gender transcendent diva.

Mama Alto is a jazz singer, cabaret artiste & gender transcendent diva. She is a transgender & queer person of colour, living with disability, who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness and power in vulnerability.

Her solo performances are critically acclaimed & programmed at venues & festivals including Chapel off Chapel (Melbourne, Australia), Melbourne Recital Centre (Melbourne, Australia), Adelaide Cabaret Festival (South Australia, Australia), Festival of Voices (Tasmania, Australia), the legendary Joe's Pub (New York, USA) & more. She has collaborated with legendary figures across the arts including Finucane & Smith, Declan Greene, Taylor Mac, and Brook Andrew. She is theco-creator of highly acclaimed variety cabaret “Gender Euphoria,” Australia’s largest ever trans & gender diverse main stage production, and is currently an ensemble member in Taylor Mac & Matt Ray's epic queer opera "Bark of Millions."

Additionally in the arts, she has worked as a diversity, equity and inclusion specialist (including as a consultant, and as former Artist Development Coordinator at Midsumma Festival), as a writer (including for Archer magazine, for publications from the NGV and Queerstories, and an MTC Cybec Electric playwright), and a cultural development specialist - for which she was awarded the prestigious 2021 Australia Council for the Arts Kirk Robson Award. 


She has also been recognised with a 2020/2019 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship, a 2019 Creative Victoria Creators Fund fellowship, and awards including the 2019 Australian LGBTI Awards Music Artist of the Year,  2018 City of Yarra Contributions to the Arts Award, and the 2017 GLOBE Melbourne LGBTI Awards Artist of the Year.

Working in service to her diverse communities, she has served as CEO of Transgender Victoria (2021-2022), a Board Member of Switchboard Victoria (2020-2022), Artist Development Coordinator at Midsumma Festival (2020-2021) and has sat on multiple advisory groups to government and industry.

Images on this page: Portrait of Mama Alto by Chloe Neath (charcoal & gold leaf).