February 02

Originally from Grimsby, Margaret studied at the Royal Northern College of Music where she was awarded both the Curtis Gold Medal and the Elsie Sykes Fellowship.  After further study in Milan, her career was launched with three seasons spent with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne Touring Opera, followed by a period of time at Opera North.

For five years she taught at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and she now continues her role as a vocal tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music with a highly successful operatic and concert career which, to date, has encompassed a varied and impressive range of performances and commitments. Margaret is now in demand for Master Classes, Workshops and Examining, and has recently accepted the position of Vocal Consultant to the Huddersfield Choral Society.

In 1997 Margaret performed the world première of The Jacobite Rising by Peter Maxwell Davies with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, performing it again at the St Magnus Festival, Orkney in June 1998, as well as alongside the world premiere of Sea Elegy later that year.

Her past credits, include two performances of Handel's Messiah with the Queen's Choristers at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, singing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a Gala Evening; giving the first performance in Latvia of The Dream of Gerontius; and singing Les Nuits D'Eté with the Atelier Lyrique in France, which was also recorded by French television. She has performed Elgar's The Kingdom, in London, Tippett's Child of our Time in Sheffield Cathedral and Judas Maccabaeus in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Carmiel for the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Last year she took a workshop for the Huddersfield Choral Youth Choir, and sang concerts nationwide including The Dream of Gerontius in Exeter Cathedral. Recent engagements have included St. Matthew Passion in Buxton, Verdi's Requiem in Chichester and Exeter Cathedrals, Messiah in Shrewsbury Abbey and a solo recital tour. . She has also performed The Kingdom, Sea Pictures, Musicmakers and Mendelssohn's Elijah, with Willard White, as well as work for the BBC, as part of the Leeds International Music Festival.

She has appeared at a number of festivals including the Three Choirs' Festival, the Quimper Festival, the Spitalfields Festival, the Saintes Festival (with Graham Johnson) and the Dublin Contemporary Festival. She has also performed with Walter Süsskind, Norman del Mar, Simon Rattle, Jane Glover and Martyn Brabbins to name but a few.  Recent concert work ranges dramatically in style from Mahler's 3rd Symphony in Huddersfield Town Hall, with Nicholas Cleobury, to being guest artist at The Spa, Scarborough, with Simon Kenworthy and orchestra. Margaret sings regularly at all major London venues and in cathedrals throughout the UK, and her oratorio repertoire (over 40 works) spans all the standard works, as well as contemporary pieces by Boulez, Henze, Greaves and Barber.

Operatic work
For Opera North she has sung the role of April Showers in the premiere of Playing Away, the Mermaid in Oberon, Beatrice in Rebecca, Mercedes in Carmen La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi.  For the City of Birmingham Touring Opera she has appeared as Meg Page in Falstaff; for Scottish Opera Go Round, Eboli in Don Carlos; for Chelsea Opera Group, Ascanio in Benvenuto Cellini and the title role of Bizet's Djamileh.  She has also worked for English National Opera, the English Bach Festival and the Buxton Festival, and performed the première staging of Madness Lit by Lightning, composed by Naresh Sohal for the Paragon Ensemble

Recording work
Margaret's recordings include the Mozart Requiem and the Vespers in Germany, Haydn's Paukenmesse for Berlin Radio, Isoletta in La Straniera (Bellini) with the Northern Sinfonia, and the She-Ancient in Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage for Nimbus Records.  She also recorded in November 1993 for Marco Polo. In December 1998 she recorded Peter Maxwell Davies' Sea Elegy and the Jacobite Rising.

Future Engagements
These will include concert performances nationwide of Verdi's Requiem and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, Music Makers and The Kingdom,  Rossini's PetitMesse Solennelle, plus numerous and vatied recitals including participating in the Schubert Fest at the R.N.C.M. in January.

Margaret has released her first solo CD of hymns and sacred songs called Restoration. For further information, please contact ORAPRO Enterprises Ltd. On 0113 225 0544