New Zealand soprano Madison Nonoa holds a Masters degree in Music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she studied under the tutelage of Yvonne Kenny on the prestigious Opera Course. Since graduating in 2019, Madison has made her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera as First Siren/Rinaldo and was selected as a 2020/2021 Jerwood Young Artist for the Festival. Madison was named a Samling Artist in 2020 and is a current Britten-Pears Young Artist and OAE Rising star, as well as a former Dame Malvina Major Emerging Young Artist with New Zealand Opera, where she made her debut as Papagena/Die Zauberflöte.
Operatic roles include Susanna/Le Nozze di Figaro, Despina/Cosí fan tutte, Tytania/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lauretta/Gianni Schicchi, Giulietta/I Capuleti ed I Montecchi, Almirena and First Siren/Rinaldo, Ciboulette/Mesdames de la Halle, First Spirit/Cendrillon, Papagena/Die Zauberflote, Ifigenia/Oreste and Leonora/The Long Christmas Dinner.
Madison has performed nationally and internationally with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra as a concert soloist resulting in a CD recording “Noel! Noel!” and with the London Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall. Competition highlights include being the first prize winner of the Dame Malvina Major Arias in Christchurch and Wellington, as well as being awarded the first prize in the Napier Aria, Tauranga competitions and receiving 2nd prize in the New Zealand Aria Competition. She was a semi-finalist in the London Bach Singing competition and the International Handel Singing Competition and a finalist in the 2016 Lexus Song Quest, where she was selected as the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation “Most Promising Singer”.
This season Madison makes several debuts, including her festival debuts at the Salzburg and Whitsun Festivals as Amore/Orfeo ed Euridice cond. Gianluca Capuano, Amour/Orphée et Eurydice with Raphaël Pichon with Ensemble Pygmalion at the Pulsations Festival in Bordeaux, and her house and role debut as the title role in Dido and Aeneas for the Ustinov Studio at the Theatre Royal Bath. Other recent operatic engagements include Madison’s festival debut as the title role in Acis and Galatea for the London Handel Festival, her house debut in the role of Maria/West Side Story for Opera du Rhin and Papagena/Die Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne.
On the concert platform, recent and upcoming performances include Madison’s Edinburgh International Festival debut, performances of Couperin’s Trois Leçons de Ténèbres with the King’s Consort, a concert tour of Lusitano’s works with the Chineke! ensemble, appearing as a Britten Pears Young Artist in concert with Bryn Terfel, and participation at Snape Maltings with Simon Keenlyside and Malcolm Martineau as part of the Momentum Scheme.
She acknowledges the ongoing support of the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Dame Malvina Major Foundations.