Katie Noonan

The always enchanting Katie Noonan is a self-described "schizophrenic — musically speaking," which is another way of saying she's been gifted with more than the usual allocation of vocal talent, allowing her to flit between styles with carefree ease. Jazz, opera, pop, rock, dance . . . it's all in a day's work for Noonan, who got her start in the business fronting george, and hooked up with guitarist Cameron Deyell, keyboardist/bassist Stu Hunter, and drummer Declan Kelly — aka the Captains — for 2010's excellent Emperor's Box. Find her in company with Sia on "Sweet One" before following the easy groove of "Time to Begin" from 2007 solo debut, Skin.

Noonan looks to the Lennon & McCartney songbook, in Next Steps.

A free-ranging, interpretative approach to the songs of Lennon and McCartney — that's what Noonan attempted with 2008's Blackbird, recorded "as live" in just under two days, and on the strength of her gorgeous, gently shimmering cover of "I'm Only Sleeping" she succeeded, hands-down. The eclectically minded artist has also been known to collaborate with her mum, an established opera singer with many of the genes responsible for Katie's incredible vocal versatility, and here we find them negotiating an ocean of tenderness with West Side Story's "I Have a Love." Can she carry a seasonal tune? Can she ever . . . check out the folkish "Maybe This Christmas."

Just when you think you've seen the full range of feathers in Katie Noonan's cap, up she pops with another. The supremely gifted and multifaceted artist, who studied opera and jazz at the Queensland Conservatorium, introduced herself to the world at large with george, cofounded and co-fronted with with brother Tyrone Noonan (cue up highlights "Special Ones" and "Run" for a flash-back to those early years), and in the years following 2002's Polyserena, she has sidelined into jazz projects, solo work, additional familial collaborations (with mum Maggie) and an alliance with the Captains. Aside from Noonan's obvious vocal strengths, a lively and intuitive creative mind lies at the heart of her success: she has ranked impressionist painter Sir Arthur Boyd as an influence — part of the creative process behind Emperor's Box was undertaken at Boyd's Shoalhaven River property — and she continues to uphold her refusal to be pigeon-holed.