Margaret McDonald
Biography
Margaret McDonald is a renowned international mezzo-soprano and voice-coach. She sings regularly in major venues with leading conductors both in the UK and abroad, encompassing an extensive repertoire. She has sung on the operatic stage for Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera, Opera North, ENO, Scottish Opera and Opera Go Round, CBTO and Chelsea Opera to name but a few. She has recorded works for Nimbus, Marco Polo and the BBC, including Maxwell Davies’ The Jacobite Rising and Sea Elegy.
Maggie now combines a busy singing schedule with her Vocal Consultancy work – being in demand for master-classes, workshops and examining. She has taught at the Scottish Conservatoire and the RNCM (where she indeed studied) and is the vocal coach for the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and the Hallé Choir. She teaches at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and regularly coaches the Birmingham Festival Chorus, Doncaster Choral Society, Chester Musical Society, Liverpool Philharmonic Chorus, the St George’s Singers and the Marsh Ladies Choir. She has recently led a day workshop at Southwell Minster.
Concerts in the last season have ranged from Bach’s B minor Mass in Derby Cathedral, Brahms Alto Rhapsody in Lancaster Great Hall with Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s Requiem in Buxton, to a recital in Leeds Town Hall with Simon Lindley and an evening of Cole Porter for Doncaster Choral Society. Recent performances have included a recital with recorder player John Turner, a recital in Leeds Town Hall, Elgar’s The Music Makers in Worcestershire, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Sheffield Cathedral, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio for Doncaster Choral Society, Handel’s Saul in London’s St. John Smith’s Square, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle in Sheffield City Hall and recitals in France.
Future performances include a new multi-media recital project with accompanist David Jones, Verdi’s Requiem in Hertford, Mahler’s 8th Symphony in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall for the BBC, Elgar’s The Music Makers in Southwell Minster, amongst recitals here and abroad.