Dame Malvina Major
Dame Malvina Major’s remarkable professional career has spanned more than forty years. She was born in New Zealand, studied with Dame Sister Mary Leo, won the New Zealand Mobil Song Quest and the Melbourne Sun Aria, and studied at the London Opera Centre. While studying singing with Ruth Packer Malvina won the Kathleen Ferrier Competition. International recognition came quickly when she was invited to perform at the Salzburg Festival.
Dame Malvina has performed twenty-eight major operatic roles in many opera houses including The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. She has an extensive concert, oratorio and recital repertoire performing in many international venues throughout the world from the Royal Festival Hall, London to The Pyramids in Egypt. Dame Malvina has recorded numerous operas and has released a number of CDs including an historic CD of with renowned accompanist Gerald Moore. In 2010 Dame Malvina will tour the North Island with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and has received invitations to perform in Japan.
Dame Malvina Major is a Professor of Voice at the University of Canterbury. She has given master-classes abroad, in a number of countries, including England at The Royal College of Music, London and was one of a panel of judges at the Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition at the Marinsky Academy in St Petersburg, Russia. Dame Malvina recently returned from a visit to the USA where she met with eminent professors at prestigious institutions to discuss the training programmes and the possibility of student exchanges.
The Dame Malvina Major Foundation was established in 1991 and information about this can be viewed on
www.damemalvinamajorfoundation.org