Biography

Lyric Soprano, Madeleine Pierard is a Jette Parker Young Artist with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

She began her musical life as a pianist in Napier, 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 at the Benjamin Britten Opera School at the Royal College of Music in London, studying under Lillian Watson.

Madeleine has won many awards during her residency, 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 a winner of the 2005 Lexus Song Quest and in 2008 as a recipient of an Arts Foundation New Generation Award.  This award celebrates young artists who have assured potential.  Their work is exciting.  They are independent, individual and show outstanding promise.  They also display a depth of thinking and consistency that gives their work strength. Madeleine's award was made possible with support from Freemasons New Zealand.

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. Past roles at the RCM include Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Cherubino, Prince Charmant (Cendrillon) and Thaïs.

Professionally, Madeleine's roles have included Justice (The First Commandment) with the Classical Opera Company, Das erste Blumenmädchen (Parsifal), Marzelline (Fidelio) with the Auckland Philharmonia and NBR New Zealand Opera and Musetta (La Boheme) with Longborough Festival Opera. With The Royal Opera, Madeleine debuted with Sandman (Hänsel und Gretel) and later this season (2011) sings High Priestess (Aida) and Noémie (Cendrillon). She also understudied Leila (The Pearl Fishers) and will understudy Marfa (The Tsar's Bride).

Madeleine has performed extensively on the concert platform throughout New Zealand and the United Kingdom: Notable oratorio performances include Carmina Burana, Mozart Requiem and Haydn Nelson Mass as St Martin-in-the-Fields under Ivor Setterfield, Verdi's Requiem with the Cleveland Philharmonic, Haydn's Creation in the King's LynnFestival and Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man at The Royal Festival Hall.

Madeleine has also debuted in recital at the Wigmore and Cadogan Halls, appeared with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jonathan Lemalu in recitals in Jersey and London, in a sell-out recital series in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Simon Lepper and as soloist on tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in China. Recent New Zealand performances include Sir Paul McCartney's Ecce Cor Meum with the Vector Wellington Orchestra and Orpheus Choir, Handel's Messiah with the Tudor Consort and VWO and as soloist on tour with the NZSO National Youth Orchestra under Jacques Lacombe.

Madeleine was also a 2009/10 Samling Scholar and a 2009/10 trainee at the National Opera Studio in London, where she was generously sponsored by The Royal Opera.

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 also completed two recordings with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under James Judd, featuring works by Lyell Cresswell and Beethoven works for soprano and orchestra for the Naxos Label.