Wilma MacDougall
Wilma MacDougall was born in Scotland and after gaining her BA(Hons) in Music went on to graduate
from Homerton College, Cambridge with a PGCE. In Cambridge she studied singing with Nigel
Wickens and Laura Sarti and sang with Jesus College Chapel Choir and performed regularly as a
soloist in oratorio, recital and choral music in the South of England. She then moved to
Glasgow to study singing with Patricia MacMahon at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
where she won several scholarships, awards and competitions and graduated with an
M.Mus.
Wilma works regularly as a recitalist and soloist and has performed with many orchestras and
ensembles including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Northern
Sinfonia, The Ulster Orchestra, The Avison Ensemble, The Edinburgh Quartet and Paragon
Ensemble. She has recorded and broadcast with BBC Radio and Television with repertoire ranging
from Bach’s Cantata No. 51 –
Jauchzet Gott to contemporary repertoire.
Her wide repertoire ranges from the British premiere of Stockhausen’s
Sternklang directed by the composer to recitals and performances of oratorio in Germany,
Denmark, Italy, Czeckoslovakia and throughout Britain, working with conductors including Sir
Charles Mackerras, Stephen Cleobury and Christopher Bell.
Operatic roles have included Musetta in Puccini’s
La Boheme, Michaela in Bizet’s
Carmen, Grainne in the premiere of Bill Sweeney’s Gaelic opera
An Turus and the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s
Magic Flute.
Concerts have included
Concerto for coloratura soprano by Gliere (arr. Mutter) Loch Shiel Festival
, Poulenc’s
Gloria with NYCoS and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the Usher Hall,
Edinburgh, a televised solo recital at the Festivale Internaçional i Muzikes Kamertale in
Pristina, Haydn songs and the German premiere of “Lament for Mary Queen of Scots” by James
MacMillan at the Potsdam Music Festival, Germany with Haydn Trio Eisenstadt and Mendelssohn’s
Elijah in The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford .
She enjoys a very busy singing teaching practice and has taught at Glasgow University, Napier
University, The Junior Academy of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and The High School
of Glasgow. She is the vocal tutor for The Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus and has
taught at The National Youth Choir of Scotland, National Boys Choir and The Ulster Youth Choir
summer courses and The Belfast Philharmonic Choir . She also enjoys adjudicating for music
festivals throughout the country and running an annual Singing Course in the South of France.
