Acclaimed Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker describes Madeline Hildebrand as “an extraordinary young artist whose communicative skills convey the essence of all that she plays. Her pianism is of the highest level, and she has an instinctive understanding of beautiful sound.”

Madeline is a versatile pianist, quickly becoming a top-pick as a soloist and collaborator across Canada and the US. She has appeared recently in concert with Philip Glass (Winnipeg New Music Festival), the Kronos Quartet (Mass MoCA), with Yarn/Wire (DiMenna Center, New York), and as a soloist for Music Toronto’s COSE series. Of her recent performance of Joan Tower’s Petroushskates at the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend, Tower states, “I was really impressed with how Madeline navigated that part with such ease and power at the same time…IT was one of the BEST performances of that piece I have heard.”

Whether cooperating with a singer or a sine wave, Madeline’s collaborative virtuosity leads much of her work. Her first prize win in the Women’s Musical Club’s McLellan Competition included a concerto debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in costumed performances as part of the WSO’s Beyond the Score educational series, and in chamber collaborations with many of Manitoba’s top musicians. An Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition prize winner, her passion for creating unique musical experiences has led to numerous collaborations with living composers. She can be heard on T. Patrick Carrabré’s latest Western Canadian Music Award winning album 100,000 Lakes, and was spotlighted in Banff Centre’s 2022 Evolution: Classical led by the Gryphon Trio. She has performed with Canadian violinist Andrew Wan and cellists Ariel Barnes and Paul Marleyn. Other musical highlights include sharing the stage with Philip Glass in a performance of his Etudes (Winnipeg’s New Music Festival 2018), transforming a riverbank into a dazzling interactive light show featuring Six Pianos (Winnipeg Nuit Blanche 2020), and performing with the Kronos Quartet (MoMA 2023). She has been presented as a soloist and collaborator by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Soundbytes Series, GroundSwell, Virtuosi Concerts, Cluster Festival, the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg, Winnipeg’s Millennium Centre’s summer chamber concerts, Agassiz Chamber Music Festival, Augustfest, and the Brandon Chamber Players. She is a vigorous advocate for bringing classical music to rural communities as evidenced by her solo tours with Home Routes and Living Room Live. While in New York, Madeline appeared in concert with Groupmuse, Yarn/Wire, at Greenwich House, and at Mise en Place. 

Madeline founded the Young Artists Program for Winnipeg’s Virtuosi Concert Series, where she served on the board for seven years. She is an alumni of summer festivals: Bang on a Can, Kneisel Hall, Banff Centre, Orford Music Academy, and Cassalmaggiore International Festival.  She has been an instructor at festivals Rosamunde Academy and Music at Port Milford. As an adjudicator and master class clinician, she has appeared at numerous festivals throughout Canada, and enjoys her present post as interim instructor at Brandon University, and Canadian Mennonite University.

Madeline Hildebrand recently completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at Stony Brook University, NY, where she won the prestigious position as an IDEA (inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility) grad, crafting pathways through curriculums for new interdisciplinary degree programs, and devising service-learning projects for the music department. Her formative teachers include Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, Jane Coop, Judy Kehler Siebert, and Michelle Sawatzky. Her playing has taken her coast to coast in Canada and the USA, Italy, Romania, to Armenia and Georgia upon the invitation of composer David Braid, and most recently to the Netherlands. 

This season, Madeline joins oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs in concerts featuring the dramatic and enchanting melodies of Eastern Europe (see DUO CBJ & MH), and will travel to Dublin, Ireland to play the International ClarinetFest 2024 with Trio Joya. Other events will find Maddy in P.E.I., Ontario and Alberta , and at Winnipeg’s Cluster Festival. See her performance calendar for details. 

When not weaving melodies and harmonies at the piano, Maddy can be found sewing her own one-of-a-kind cloth creations.
To read a recent interview with Madeline, click on Mennotoba, where you can find answers to five great questions asked by writer Erin Koop Unger. Madeline is grateful for the support of the Manitoba Arts Council.