Margaret McDonald
Biography
Margaret McDonald ( Maggie ) is a renowned international mezzo-soprano and voice-coach. She sings regularly in major venues with leading conductors and orchestras 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 Scottish débuts of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Jacobite Rising and Sea Elegy, and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Latvia! She has sung for the Royal family at Windsor castle and Braemar, and in the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
Maggie enjoys planning and presenting recitals, on different themes, including a range of repertoire from different genre. Her most recent recital was with David Jones at the piano, which opened up her world of synaesthesia. It showed how she experiences sounds, musical notation, numbers and letters, in colours and textures. The audience could watch the colours Maggie “sees” on two screens linked to a computer programme – while she sang a range of repertoire creating a real multi–media experience!
Maggie now combines her singing schedule with her Vocal Consultancy work – being in demand for master-classes, workshops and examining. She has taught at Chetham’s School of Music, the Scottish Conservatoire and the RNCM (where she indeed studied) and is the vocal coach for the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and the Hallé Choir. This year, she is also delighted to accept the position of Patron with the Bury Choral Society.
When she has any free time, Maggie loves to meet up with family and friends, as well as enjoying playing the church organ, cooking, swimming and driving.
May 2025
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