MADELEINE PIERARDSoprano
Madeleine Pierard started her career as a pianist 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 at the RCM International Opera School in London. Madeleine was also a 2009/10 trainee at the National Opera Studio in London, sponsored by The Royal Opera. She has won a number of awards during her London residency, notably the Lies Askonas Prize, the Great Elm Award at the Wigmore Hall, The Les Azuriales Ozone Opera Competition in 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. In 2008, she was named as ‘What’s Hot’ by the international Opera Now magazine. She studies with soprano, Yvonne Kenny.
Madeleine Pierard sang Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Cherubino, Prince Charmant (Cendrillon) and Thaïs at the RCM and Justice (The First Commandment) with the Classical Opera Company, Flowermaiden(Parsifal) and Marzelline (Fidelio) with NBR New Zealand Opera, Musetta (La Boheme) with Longborough Festival Opera and Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito) with Auckland Opera Studio. She was a Jette Parker Young Artist for two years from 2010 and sang Lisa (La Sonnambula), Sandman (Hänsel und Gretel), High Priestess (Aida), Noémie (Cendrillon), Nymph (Rusalka), Slave (Salome), Musetta in John Copley’s production of La Boheme and Contessa di Folleville (Il Viaggio a Reims), and covered Donna Anna, Musetta, Leila (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) and Marfa (The Tsar’s Bride) for the Royal Opera. She also sang Fauré’s Requiem and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Royal Ballet.
Madeleine has performed extensively on the concert platform throughout NZ and the UK: Notable oratorio soloist performances include Carmina Burana, Mozart Requiem and Haydn Nelson Mass at St Martin-in-the-Fields under Ivor Setterfield, Verdi’s Requiem with the Cleveland Philharmonic, Haydn’s Creation in the King’s Lynn Festival and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and the Poulenc Stabat Mater at The Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonia. Madeleine has appeared 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. She has sung frequently with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand and China including a tour under Pietari Inkinen with Jonathan Lemalu and Simon O’Neill. She also made a ten-centre recital tour throughout New Zealand with her sister, mezzo-soprano, Anna Pierard and pianist, Terence Dennis. She has a particular interest in performing contemporary works, premiering Symphony No. 2 written for her by New Zealand composer, Ross Harris, with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and made two recordings with the NZSO under James Judd, featuring works by Lyell Cresswell and Beethoven.
Engagements in 2013 include Costanza in Haydn’s L’Isola Disabitata in Hobart and Flowermaiden
in the new production of Parsifal at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
