Katie Noonan

Katie Noonan's upbringing unfolded amid constant music because her parents—opera singer Maggie Noonan and journalist-singer Brian Noonan—first encountered each other on the television variety show Showcase, where she captured the judges' approval and he won the audience vote. That shared musical world also shaped her brother Tyrone, prompting the siblings to launch the band george together in 1996 so they could compete in a talent contest. The following year she assembled the jazz ensemble Elixir alongside saxophonist Zac Hurren, who would later become her husband, and the group issued its self-titled debut the year after that.

While these projects took shape, Katie continued her dual training in opera and jazz at the Queensland Conservatorium. Only in 2002 did george finally commit its first album to tape; Polyserena entered the charts at number one and earned platinum certification within eight weeks. The band tracked its sophomore effort, Unity, in Byron Bay the next year and released it in 2004. Also that year, Katie and her mother Maggie issued the duet collection Two of a Kind, which merged their respective jazz and operatic approaches.

Once those recordings appeared, Katie stepped back to marry and start a family. The hiatus proved brief: in 2005 she collaborated with pianist Paul Grabowsky on Before Time Could Change Us, a song cycle setting poems by Dorothy Porter. She next laid down her solo debut at Linear Studios in Sydney during her second pregnancy; the resulting album, Skin, reached listeners in 2007.