British Jugendlich-dramatischer soprano Erika Mädi Jones debuted to critical acclaim as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at Longborough Festival Opera in summer 2016.
Winner of the British Song Competition at the 2018 London Song Festival and the 2017 Dvořák Society for Czech and Slovak Music Prize at the Emmy Destinn Young Singers competition. Erika was highly commended in the finals of the 2015 UK Wagner Society singing competition and a semifinalist in the 9. Internationale Wagnerstimmen Wettbewerb in Germany in 2018. She was awarded first prize in the 2013 Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Duo competition and second prize in the Roy Pleasance Competition that same year. Erika is supported by Help Musicians UK, and is the recipient of the Goodall scholarship from the UK Wagner Society, Friends in New York of TCM London Award/ Edgar TP Comley Certificate of Excellence. She was a chorister at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2015.
In recital Erika has performed in venues across the country including Benjamin Britten’s Library at the Red House in Aldeburgh, St. James’ Piccadilly, Blackheath Halls and in festivals such as the London Song Festival. She has been broadcast as part of BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Recital series and performed as guest on BBC Radio 3 InTune. In concert Erika has performed orchestral works such as Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and Ravel’s Shéhérazade and worked with conductors including Howard Williams, Diego Masson and Gerry Cornelius.
Opera credits include: Ellen Orford, Peter Grimes (Dartington International Music Festival), Donna Anna, Don Giovanni, (Moon-Little Theatre & Co Opera Co). Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen (Rogue Opera), Leonore, Fidelio (Guildford Opera), Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (TL Opera Scenes). Die Marschallin, Der Rosenkavalier (TL Opera Scenes), 2 Magd, Daphne (with Opera at Home), 2nd Lady, Die Zauberflöte (in a workshop with Simon McBurney/Complicite ahead of his new staging of Die Zauberflöte for De Nederlandse Oper), and Miss Jessell, The Turn of the Screw (TL Opera scenes)
Erika grew up in South-Shropshire and went to school at Lacon Childe School in Cleobury Mortimer and Oldbury Wells Sixth Form College in Bridgnorth. She graduated from the Cardiff University Music School with honours before pursuing vocal studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Gaining Distinctions in both Masters of Music and Postgraduate Artist’s Diploma, her studies were supported by the Robinson Hearn Scholarship, Stopford Westminster Bursary, the Kathleen Roberts Scholarship, Trinity Laban Postgraduate and External courses bursary funds. She was a Les Azuriales young artist in 2015 and a Britten Pears Young Artist the following year where she performed in the Aldeburgh Festival as part of the Thomas Quasthoff Brahms song course.
She has had the pleasure of performing in masterclasses with such artists as Cheryl Studer, Susan Bullock, Rosalind Plowright OBE, Diana Montague, Ryland Davies, Susanna Stranders, Wendy Dawn Thompson, Ian Kennedy, Richard Jackson, Sarah Leonard, Martin Handley and Rodney Clarke.
Erika is a fluent German speaker. She lives in South Shropshire and studies with Alison Wells.
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