Laraine Ann Madden – Accompanist
Sponsored by Dina Spevack
Accompanist Laraine Ann Madden has garnered acclaim as one of the most sensitive and experienced collaborating artists in the Los Angeles area. Trained in the Bay Area, she made her solo debut with the Oakland Symphony at age 13 performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488. Ms. Madden holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music from San Francisco State University, a Master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Juilliard School and an Artist’s Diploma from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She has performed in the Bay Area, Washington, Pennsylvania, and New York, and abroad in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Ms. Madden studied Accompanying at the University of Southern California with its pioneer teacher, Gwendolyn Koldofsky and has accompanied in the master classes of Martin Katz, Geoffrey Parsons, Giorgio Tozzi, Martial Singher, Joan Dornemann and Peter Pears. She has served as “repetiteur” accompanist under conductors Simon Rattle, Christoph Perrick and Richard Buckley, and has appeared in concert with singers associated with New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and Los Angeles Opera including Alan Titus, Rod Gilfry, Erie Mills, Young Mi Kim and Ealynn Voss. During her tenure at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, she accompanied young American artists seeking operatic careers in Europe. She also toured extensively in the United States with the Roger Wagner Chorale under Columbia Artists Management and performed with the Philadelphia String Quartet.
Ms. Madden has served on the faculties of California State University, Los Angeles, UCLA, and Pasadena City College as Assistant Professor of Music where she taught Keyboard Skills and directed the Piano Accompanying Program for twenty-one years. Previous engagements include performing on the Jacaranda Concert Series and with the Walter Fox Singers at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica, the Huntington Library in Pasadena and the Richard Nixon Library for the Marshall B. Ketchum University’s Shared Visions Gala. In August of 2017, Ms. Madden joined the music faculty for Two Cranes International Music Festival at Pasadena City College. Joining with the Walter Fox Singers during the pandemic, two concerts on Spanish and Italian composers were streamed online for "Verdi Chorus Presents." This is her twenty-third year as collaborator with the Verdi Chorus