MADELEINE WIEGERS – VOICE RECITAL with Laura Garred, Piano

May 26, 2022 – 7PM – Pearson Lakes Art Center

Featuring works by: Rodrigo / Schubert / Schoenberg / Copland / Barber / Mozart / Faure

Bio:

Madeleine Wiegers, mezzo-soprano, has performed in venues across Europe in operas and concerts. Her classical repertoire ranges from contemporary American art songs and arias to her beloved Susanna from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. It is part of her mission to be a liaison for ancient art in modern day. Madeleine sang her first named role as Lydia in the world premiere of Scott B. Joiner’s Bridesmaids at the Odeon Theater in Vienna, Austria at the Vienna Summer Music Festival in 2018. There, she met and began her work with acclaimed vocal coach Daniel Sarge. Shortly before attending the festival, Madeleine toured Norway with one of the most prominent collegiate choirs in the world, the Iowa State Singers. As a soloist in the choir, she premiered Renee Clausen’s “Early Bird” and sang in venues across Norway and the United States including the Trondheim Cathedral and Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall. She performed at the National American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conventions as a soloist in 2014 with Waukee A Cappella under the direction of Dr. Amy Hall, in 2017 with the Iowa State Singers under the direction of Dr. James Rodde, and in 2018 as a member of Iowa State’s women’s choir, Cantamus, under the direction of Kathleen Rodde. Madeleine’s first venture overseas to pursue opera was at age 16 when she attended Opera Viva! In Verona, Italy, while she studied with Leanne Freeman-Miller of Drake University. While at the program, she sang as Donna Elvira in her first Mozart quartet and fell in love with the nuances of his recitative in her lesson with celebrated soprano June Anderson. 

Her awards include the Iowa Choral Directors Association (ICDA) Award in 2016, National First Place Winner at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) convention in 2016, National Finalist at MTNA in 2015, and National Finalist at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) conventions in 2015 and 2016. She was selected as a finalist in the Opera Viva! international aria competition in July 2021. Madeleine now studies with dynamic soprano Lisa Saffer at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she is the recipient of the Presidential Distinction Scholarship. She is an avid reader of nonfiction, studier of languages, and prefers to work under candlelight.