Biography

Madeleine Pickering is a British violinist and violist. She currently holds a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, where she is studying on the master’s programme with Maureen Smith and Tasmin Little (violin), and Martin Outram (viola).

Since co-leading the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 2015, Madeleine has pursued her love for orchestral playing and leading. In 2015, she became the youngest ever leader of the Amadeus Orchestra, a position she held until 2018. In 2019 she was awarded a place on the LSO String Experience Scheme and has since worked with the orchestra professionally. She regularly leads and co-leads the Academy’s Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, and has worked with conductors Trevor Pinnock, Edward Gardner and Sir Mark Elder in these projects. Madeleine particularly enjoys collaborating with emerging young conductors and soloists in small scale or single instrumentation orchestral projects and is also honing her skills in directing from the violin through self-organised projects.

Madeleine led the Florizel String Quartet from 2015-19, touring the UK and Italy and winning the Wolfe Wolfinsohn String Quartet Prize. She was invited to perform with Joanna MacGregor and Adrien Brendel in the Royal Academy of Music’s Piano Festival in 2018 and has been first violinist of the Ametza String Quartet since they formed in late 2019. The Ametza Quartet was immediately accepted onto the Academy’s competitive ASSET Scheme to study with Martin Outram and now give regular performances both live and online.

As a soloist, Madeleine has been particularly interested in exploring English repertoire, and this interest has extended to her chamber music and orchestral collaborations as well. Aside from concerto and recital performances across the UK, Madeleine has won first prize in the Academy’s Theodore Holland Viola Prize (2016), and the Winifred Small Prize for Solo Violin (2020). She has played in masterclasses with distinguished musicians including Lawrence Power, James Ehnes, and Jennifer Pike.

Madeleine is extremely grateful for generous support from Help Musicians UK, The Rosemary Bugden Charitable Trust, Rachel and Peter Martin, and Talent Unlimited. She has been a member of the Musicians’ Company Young Artists’ Programme since 2019, when she received the Biddy Baxter and John Hosier Music Trust Special Award.

Musicians’ Company Award: The John Hosier and Biddy Baxter Trust Scholarship 2019

Photograph: Alastair Merrill

Page Updated: Dec 2020