MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Ovation: The Very Best Of Dame Malvina Major

Born in Hamilton, Dame Malvina was the 7th child in a musical family with country music roots. Her extraordinary voice began to shine through from an early age and inevitably opera beckoned. After winning the New Zealand Mobil Song Quest in 1963, and the Melbourne Sun Aria in 1964, she moved to England to further her studies at the London Opera Centre. This would be the beginning of a professional career that would take her to the stages of the great opera houses of Europe.

Over the next 4 decades Dame Malvina's international opera career would include twenty-eight major Operatic roles, extensive Oratorio and Concert repertoire and a wide-ranging discography of commercial recordings.

In 1991 Dame Malvina formed the 'Dame Malvina Major Foundation' to support the training of young New Zealand artists - to afford other young singers the opportunities she had been given in her youth. Dame Malvina's vision to "Share the Dream" continues to underpin everything the Foundation does today, "grassroots to excellence".

In 2012 Dame Malvina was bestowed the honour of becoming one of the 20 select members of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ). She has also received Honorary Doctorates from both Waikato and Massey Universities.

Currently Dame Malvina Major is a Senior Fellow in Music at the University of Waikato, and continues to have a full diary of concert performances both nationally and internationally.