Young soprano adds strings to her bow

Soprano Madeleine Pierard has a busy schedule.

The unavoidable question pops up the moment I meet Madeleine Pierard - what is life like after Lexus?

The Wellington-based soprano, who won last year's Lexus Song Quest, leaps to the point. "Very busy. Have you had a look at my website?"

She singles out her appearance with Jonathan Lemalu in Symphony under the Stars as one of the highlights; over the next months, there is the premiere of Ross Harris' Second Symphony and playing Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus for Hawkes Bay Opera.

The Lexus has made a difference and, above all, it gave her the chance to work with the great Grace Bumbry.

"She was daunting, formidable," Pierard remembers. "She was very encouraging in her own way and certainly didn't go out of her way to make you feel comfortable. She said exactly what she thought and was very realistic and helpful."

Pierard, who joins the New Zealand String Quartet on Friday at the Auckland Art Gallery, has already scored one overseas success she is unable to pick up on - being invited to join the Glyndebourne chorus.

"What I thought was going to a coaching session turned out to be an audition," Pierard sighs.

"I knew I wasn't going to be available for the Glyndebourne summer season because of my New Zealand commitments. I was so amazed and gutted at the same time when they offered me a place."

Growing up in a musically charged environment, Pierard played violin in the family string quartet and one of her earliest memories is her father "making us lie in the dark on the living room floor while he played Mahler symphonies".

At university, she trained as a composer.

"That's very useful when it comes to contemporary music as you can look at it more analytically. It creates opportunities like being involved with Ross Harris' new symphony, where the orchestra doesn't offer much in the ways of clues or a harmonic environment."

Friday's concert is lighter fare. The NZSQ opens with Mendelssohn and closes with Gershwin; in between Pierard sings Mozart and Respighi.

"I love Mozart," she says, "both the simplicity of the Laudate Dominum and the coloratura fireworks of the Alleluia. It's quite nerve-wracking though, especially when you sing the opera arias because you worry about your interpretation being compared to others."

Of these "others", she admits to admiring Anne Sofie von Otter and Angela Gheorghiu and identifies most with Gheorghiu "in terms of how I perceive the colour of my voice or how it could be".

In truth, Pierard's instrument is situated halfway between mezzo and full soprano.

"The roles I'm singing at the moment are middle-voice ones that have quite big high moments and require brilliance up top."

On Friday she tackles Respighi's Il Tramonto, based on Shelley's poetry, where "so much of the emotional character of the piece is in the low register which even a full mezzo would find difficult to bring off".

As for working with four string players, "it's great being so collaborative and quite enjoyable watching them argue politely amongst themselves about interpretation", Pierard confesses, although all five have a joint concern that New Zealand composers might well heed.

"It's a shame there isn't more repertoire for voice and string quartet."

Knowing Pierard's admiration for Anne Sofie von Otter, who has collaborated with Elvis Costello and happily warbles Abba, does the young Pierard have any secret desires?

"Deep down inside, sometimes I wish I was a cabaret singer, jazz singer - or even a rock chick.

"Watching Dancing with the Stars, I thought, 'Man, I'd like to get into one of those dresses and start dancing'."

But she catches herself. "On the whole though, I'm pretty happy with the way my career is going."

* New Zealand String Quartet with Madeleine Pierard at the Auckland Art Gallery, Friday 8pm