MARGARET FERGUSON (Soprano)

Margaret was born in Ghana, West Africa, with her great,great grandfather being a Scottish surgeon, Dr. Samuel Ferguson, who married a Ghanaian lady and settled in Ghana.  She gained a Music Diploma at the University College of Education, Winneba.  She has performed before many Ambassadors and High Commissioners in Ghana and was solo artist for HRH Prince Edward.

Margaret has sung solos in Handel’s Messiah, and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Ghana National Symphony Orchestra, has performed live on Television and Radio and is constantly invited to appear when she visits Ghana.  She has her own choir in Ghana called the Bi-Tonic Singers who regularly raise money for charities.

In 1994 the British Council sponsored her for opera studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, where she studied the Professional Performance course for 3 years.  She gained a Diploma at the European Mozart Academy, Poland, in 1997.  In 1999 she obtained her LLCM.  Her solo roles have been in L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Nabucco; Dido and Aeneas; La Traviata (in Italian and English) and Cavalleria Rusticana.

She has performed in many cities in the UK, the rest of Europe and North America.  Margaret has sung a number of solo and chorus works on Television and Radio with the Commonwealth Choir 2002, which became the Manchester Gospel Choir, of which she was recently appointed Musical Director.

Presently she is performing regularly with the City of Manchester Opera company, which included.  Margaret has performed with the Cornwall Male Voice Choir in Cornwall and Paris.  She has also been a soloists with the English Concert Singers; the Phoenix Opera; Musicaria; Crickhowell Choral Society; Macclesfield Oriana Choir; Kingsfold Choral Society; King Edward Musical Society (KEMS) and others. She has sung with Andrew Wilde.

Every year she presents scores of concerts for the charity Music in Hospitals.  She is also a member of the Music in Hospitals auditioning team. Margaret has raised £1,000’s for various charities from numerous concerts and presentations. At various times she has sung David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus, on two occasions  in the presence of the composer; Handel’s Messiah; Haydn’s Creation; Mozart’s Requiem; John Rutter’s Feel the Spirit; Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Requiem Mass;  Karl Jenkins The Armed Man in the presence of the composer and Michael Tippett’s  A Child of Our Time.

She also teaches Ghanaian Drumming, Dancing and Singing.  Margaret made her debut with the All Souls Orchestra for Prom Praise in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, in 2004.  Since then she has sung with them in the Royal Albert Hall. London; the Royal Festival Hall, London; the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool; Symphony Hall, Birmingham; the Waterfront Hall, Belfast; The Millennium Forum, Londonderry; St. Andrew’s Hall, Norwich; Venue Cymru, Llandudno and the Victoria Hall, Stoke.

In 2008 and 2009 she was a nominee for the Best Individual Performer at the Buxton Festival Fringe. She produced her first CD “Margaret Ferguson” in 2004, with her second production was  “Unfailing Love” in 2006. Both are on sale at her various performances.   She also features in the Prom Praise CD “Prom Praise” recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall and “Christmas Praise” recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall.

Plans are to produce a CD in three Ghanaian Languages in 2010.     (www.AfricanSoprano.com)