Madeleine Easton

Madeleine Easton is internationally recognised as a director, conductor and violinist in historically informed performance practice, appearing as soloist, concertmaster and director of some of the world’s most respected ensembles and orchestras.

Madeleine studied violin with Alice Waten and Chris Kimber at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where she graduated with rst class honours. Alongside her degree, she studied baroque violin with Lucinda Moon. She was awarded scholarships and was successful in competitions winning the Sydney Conservatorium Concerto Prize with Bartok's 2nd violin concerto, and was a nalist in both the 1999 Richard Goldner Concerto Competition and the 1998 Gisbourne International Music Competition in New Zealand. In 2000 she was a recipient of a full scholarship to attend the Julliard/Meadowmount Summer School in New York State winning the chamber music prize, and a year later won a place to study at postgraduate level at the Royal College of Music with Dr Felix Andrievsky where she graduated with distinction winning the String Prize for most outstanding performer.

Madeleine’s career as a concertmaster and director has led to engagements with leading orchestras worldwide including the Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid, the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra of Lisbon, The English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestra Revolutionaire et Romantique, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, The Kings Consort, The Gabrieli Consort, the Musicians of the Globe, The Independent Opera Company, London Orchestra da Camera, Florilegium, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Omega Ensemble, the Northern Ballet Orchestra of England, the Hanover Band and the Australian World Orchestra. Madeleine also has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music. She was the only Australian chosen to perform at the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey and regularly returns to Europe to perform as concertmaster of the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir under the batons of musicians such as Masaaki Suzuki and Christophe Roussett.

Her talent of combining both period and modern styles of violin playing has led her to form a special relationship with the Royal Academy of Music in London. There, she directed the Ralf Cohen Bach Cantata Series from 2009 - 2019, and regularly gave masterclasses and curated courses on baroque performance. Other engagements in the educational eld include leading the World Orchestra at the Schleswig Holstein Festival in Germany, the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and Monash University in Melbourne.

Madeleine has performed on many award winning recordings including the Bach Cantata series, the Bach B minor Mass and St Matthew Passion with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists for Deutsche Grammaphon, and Haydn's 'Creation', Mendelssohn's Elijah and Mozart's C Minor Mass with the Gabrieli Consort. She has released the complete piano trios of Alexis de Castillon on Peyrole Records, the Antoine Reicha Bassoon Quintet and variations with the all Australian ensemble, 'Island' on the ARS label, and Bach’s Musical Offering for Somm records.

Madeleine returned to Australia in 2019 to devote her energy to her ensemble, Bach Akademie Australia Formed in 2016, it has now become a mainstay on the Australian baroque music scene and regularly achieves 5 star reviews. Bach Akademie Australia will launch it’s own record label ‘BWV Records’ in 2026, debut with Bach’s complete vocal motets and the complete solo sonatas and partitas of Bach. Madeleine is passionately dedicated to pedagogy, and is proud to teach at the Sydney Conservatorium High School, her Alma Mater.

Madeleine plays on a 1682 Giovanni Grancino violin.