Dame Malvina Major was born in New Zealand. After winning the New Zealand Mobil Song Quest and the Melbourne Sun Aria, Dame Malvina went to London to study at the London Opera Centre. She also won the Kathleen Ferrier competition while studying at the London Opera Centre.
In New Zealand her singing teacher was Sister Mary Leo, and in London she was taught by Ruth Packer from the Royal College of Music.
International recognition came very quickly. Career highlights include performing for the King and Queen of Belgium, in Jordan for the Queen Noor Festival, in Japan where she met the Empress of Japan, and at New Zealand Embassy concerts in Washington, Paris, London, The Hague, and Brussels. She has performed for both the summer and winter Salzburg festivals, the Campden Town festival and at Covent Garden where she replaced Dame Joan Sutherland in Die Fledermaus.
Recent international concert performances have taken Dame Malvina to Cairo where she performed under the pyramids, London, Holland, America, Australia and Japan. This year she will be returning to Europe in September.
Dame Malvina’s international opera career has included twenty eight major roles, highlights of which include Mathilde in Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra, Rosina in Il Barbiere de Sivilgia, Arminda in La Finta Giardiniera, Donna Elvira and later Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly, Violetta in la Traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Anna Glawari in The Merry Widow and The Countess in the Marriage of Figaro.
She has extensive concert, oratorio and recital repertoires. These include The Verdi Requiem, Mahler’s Symphonies No. 4 and 8, The Creation, Bach’s St Mathew Passion, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, The Messiah, The Mozart Requiem, Mozart’s c Minor Mass, Songs of the Auvergne, Bach’s Christmas oratorio, St John Passion, The Liverpool Oratorio, Mendelssohn’s 2nd Symphony, Te Deum, and Elijah.
In Australia she has performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra.
Dame Malvina recently sang at a celebration event in the Wetlands of South Australia, where 550,000 acres had been recovered from invasion by seawater and returned to a natural bird sanctuary.
In New Zealand Dame Malvina has sung with all the major opera companies and orchestras, the Orpheus and Christchurch City Choirs. A highlight is Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem for the New Zealand International Festival in Wellington in 1994.
Outdoor concerts have become a feature of the summer season in New Zealand, and Dame Malvina will again perform in 2002 with Brian Law, conductor. Concerts will be held in Auckland, Rotorua and Wellington. Outdoor events at which she has performed include Carmen at North Harbour Stadium, the Starlight Symphony and Symphony Under the Stars in Auckland, Lakeside at Rotorua, the Stadium Spectacular in Wellington, Opera in the Park in Christchurch and at Carisbrook in Dunedin.
Other events planned for 2002 include involvement with the forthcoming America’s Cup – both corporate functions and concerts at the Viaduct Basin.
Dame Malvina has recorded Tosca, Il Seraglio, The Barber of Seville, and Michaela in Carmen for Television New Zealand. She has released a number of CDs, including Malvina Major, Dame Malvina in Concert, I Remember, Casta Diva, Alleluia, Christmas Time,** **and an historic CD of Malvina and Gerald Moore.
Dame Malvina has chosen to live in New Zealand, while maintaining an active international singing career. Her services to opera and the community were acknowledged in 1991 when she was invested Dame of the British Empire. In 1992 she was named New Zealand Entertainer of the Year. She has received Honorary Doctorates from both Waikato and Massey Universities, and has accepted a teaching adjunct Professorship in vocal studies at Canterbury University.
For three years, Dame Malvina was Chairperson of the Diana, Princess of Wales Trust, which has now wound up with all funds having been distributed to charities within New Zealand.
This foundation was first formed in 1992 to support the training of young New Zealand artists. The work of the Foundation is funded by private and corporate sponsors. In conjunction with NBR NZ Opera, the Dame Malvina Major Foundation Emerging Artists programme was established in 1999, together with an understudy programme with Canterbury Opera. The Dame Malvina Major Foundation has now been established in Holland to help both New Zealand and Dutch artists with their training in Europe, and is also currently being set up in the United States of America. Queen Beatrix of Holland is hosting the Dame Malvina Major Foundation launch in Amsterdam in September of this year.
