Recent News: In September 2010, Madeleine will take up a coveted position as a Jette Parker Young Artist, full-time for two years with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden
Lyric Soprano, Madeleine Pierard began her musical life as a pianist and chorister in Napier, New Zealand and later as a member of The New Zealand Youth Choir, The Tudor Consort and Voices New Zealand. After completing studies at Victoria University of Wellington (reading Musicology, Composition and Biomedical Science), she completed her MMus in 2009 at the Benjamin Britten Opera School at the Royal College of Music with Lillian Watson. Madeleine has won many awards during her residency in London, most notably the Lies Askonas Prize, the Great Elm Award at the Wigmore Hall, The Les Azuriales Ozone Opera Competition in Cap-Ferrat, France and the Singer’s Award at the Royal Overseas League Competition. Madeleine is also a New Generation Artist with the Arts Foundation of New Zealand and winner of the 2005 Lexus Song Quest, a competition that launched the careers of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jonathan Lemalu.
Recent roles have received glowing reviews around London: (as Meleagro – Atalanta in the London Handel Festival) ‘her voice rippling though the intricate settings with suppleness and purity of tone’ (Classical Source) and in 2008, Madeleine was named as ‘What’s Hot’ by the international Opera Now Magazine. Roles at the RCM include Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Cherubino, Prince Charmant (Cendrillon), Thaïs, Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Erissena (Poro). Professional roles include Justice (The First Commandment) with the Classical Opera Company, Die erstes Blumenmädchen (Parsifal), Marzelline (Fidelio) with the APO and NBR New Zealand Opera, Musetta (La Boheme) with Longborough Festival Opera and Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito) with the Auckland Opera Studio. In 2010/11, for The Royal Opera in London, Madeleine is singing Sandman (Hänsel und Gretel), High Priestess (Aida) and Noémie (Cendrillon) and is covering Leila (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) and Marfa (The Tsar's Bride).
Madeleine has performed extensively on the concert platform throughout NZ and the UK. She appears regularly as an oratorio soloist at St Martin-in-the-Fields and recently at the Royal Festival Hall with The Barts Choir and Trafalgar Sinfonia under Ivor Setterfield. Other recent concert engagements include debut recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall, Haydn’s Creation in the King’s Lynn Festival, recitals with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jonathan Lemalu in Jersey and London, as soloist on tour with the NZSO in China, in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a recital series with pianist, Simon Lepper and in recital with pianist, Stephen de Pledge at Champ's Hill. In March 2008, Madeleine made a solo appearance for H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey during the Commonwealth Day Observance.
Madeleine is a 2009/10 Samling Scholar, participating in masterclasses and recitals with Sir Thomas Allen, and a 2009/10 trainee at the prestigious National Opera Studio in London where she is generously supported by The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. From September 2010, Madeleine will be employed by The Royal Opera for two years as a Jette Parker Young Artist.
Along with opera, Madeleine has a particular interest in performing contemporary works, premiering Symphony No. 2 by New Zealand composer, Ross Harris with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 2006. Madeleine has recently completed two recordings with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, featuring works by Lyell Cresswell and Beethoven works for soprano and orchestra for the Naxos Label.
Click here for Madeleine's detailed Curriculum Vitae (in printable pdf format).