MARLENA DEVOE

Winner of a Leonard Ingrams Award and the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award, New Zealand born Samoan soprano Marlena Devoe also won the Richard Bonynge Award and the Tait Memorial Trust Prize. She was a 2018 Alvarez Artist at Garsington Opera at Wormsley, where she made her debut as Alice Ford Falstaff.

Marlena Devoe completed her MA in Advanced Vocal Studies with Distinction at the Wales International Academy of Voice, studying with Nuccia Focile and Dennis O’Neill. Prior to her studies in Cardiff, she studied at the University of Auckland, with a degree in Italian and German. Following a language exchange programme in Florence, she also studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York.

In Masterclasses, she has worked with Rebecca Evans, Dame Della Jones, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Nelly Miricioiu, Ann Murray DBE, Virginia Zeani, Richard Bonynge and David Gowland. Concert engagements have included performances alongside Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Andrea Bocelli, and Simon O’Neill.

She attended the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto, which led to an invitation to sing Adina L’elisir d’amore at the Verbier Festival conducted by Jésus Lopez-Cobos, and her engagements have further included Mimì La bohème for Lyric Opera, Dublin, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi for Singapore Lyric Opera, Gilda Rigoletto for Opera Project and Violetta La traviata for Clonter Opera.

Recent engagements have included Mimì La bohème for New Zealand Opera and Oxford Opera, which she also repeated for additional performances with Lyric Opera, Dublin, an Opera Gala with Clonter Opera, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Orion Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, Messiah with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Verdi Requiemat the Snape Maltings and Classical Favourites with the Roman River Festival Orchestra.