Finzi Trust Travel Scholarship (2011)

Finalist, Chelsea Schubert Competition (2010)

"As his beleaguered fiancée Romilda, Madeleine Holmes was dignified and self-assured, with a velvety rich voice and a core of inner calm in the face of Xerxes' unwelcome attentions" - www.theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk (2015)

"Soprano Madeleine Holmes certainly has all the verve and vocal agility for the part of Romilda, a feisty Handel heroine... vivid, characterful acting" - Early Music Today, www.earlymusictoday.com (2015)

"...superb performances with Holmes in particular giving the role a great deal of elan" - Robert Hugill, www.planethugill.com (2013)

"Madeleine Holmes (soprano) gave a stunning performance as Strekoza. Musically outstanding” - PlaysToSee, www.arcolatheatre.com (2013)

Madeleine studied French and Italian at Cambridge, where she was a choral scholar at Emmanuel College, and subsequently trained on ENO’s ‘Knack’ programme for young singers.

Opera roles include Naiad Ariadne auf Naxos, Tatyana Eugene Onegin, Mimi and Musetta La Bohème, Giorgetta Il Tabarro, Cio-Cio San (cover), Madama Butterfly and Romilda Xerxes and, in scenes and concert work, Contessa Le Nozze di Figaro, Ginevra Ariodante and Alice Ford Falstaff. Madeleine has created the roles of Eve in David Moore’s chamber opera The Diaries of Adam and Eve and Strekoza in Brian Hosefros’ Strekoza i Muravej, for Tete-a-Tete and the Arcola.

Most recently she played Mrs Lovett in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd for Dartington International Festival conducted by George Vass and directed by Richard Williams, and, as a 2017 Crear scholar, studied Massenet's Manon in masterclass with Audrey Saint-Gil, Jennifer Ringo and Malcolm Martineau. She returns to Sweeney Todd this year as Beggar Woman (Lucy Barker) in a fully-staged performance with the Slaithwaite Philharmonic at Huddersfield Town Hall.

Madeleine works regularly with pianist Gavin Roberts, with whom she was Finalist in the 2010 Chelsea Schubert Festival Competition and performed at the New Dots Symposium at the ROH / Clore. She has also worked with pianists Jonathan Beatty and John Reid, notably on the première of Julian Philips’ Life Lessens at the Bloomsbury Festival and Wigmore Hall. In 2011 she received a travel scholarship from the Finzi Trust to begin research into the lesser-performed 20th century Italian song repertoire.

Concert performances include Mozart Requiem (St Martin-in-the-Fields), Carmina Burana and Haydn Creation (St John's, Waterloo), St John Passion (St George's Cathedral), Faure Requiem and Haydn Nelson Mass (Peterborough Cathedral), Mozart Coronation Mass (Anghiari Festival).

Madeleine further combines her love of languages, music and acting in her teaching work as a Vocal Tutor at Morley College, where she runs masterclasses in song and performance, and as vocal coach for the Actors Richmond Centre. She is regular soprano with the professional church choir of St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place.

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