About Us

Levedy Ensemble is an exciting voice and harp quintet who originally met through Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Levedy Ensemble has found a niche performing classic and contemporary works for upper voices with harp, complementing concerts with prison workshops and hospital outreach programmes and performances. Recent engagements have included performances in London and Cambridge, a collaborative project with Lilium SoundArt in Padova, and a Switzerland tour. In October 2020 the group were delighted to be announced as winners of the inaugural Carne Trust Chamber Music Competition.

The members of Levedy Ensemble (a Middle English word meaning ‘lady’, inspired by the language in Britten’s Ceremony of Carols) are particularly interested in the juxtaposition of solo and ensemble voices with harp, and cultivating a unique and mature blend. Formed of opera singers with choral backgrounds, and a multifaceted harpist with experience as a concert soloist and opera pit musician, Levedy seeks to push the boundaries of the classic ethereal voice-harp sound and create instead a rich, robust and full-bodied scape.

Meet the musicians

Madeleine Todd

Soprano

Madeleine Todd is a soprano currently in her final year at Trinity Laban. She first started singing as a member of the National Youth Choir of Scotland at the age of seven, and continued her musical education as a choral scholar with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge under Stephen Layton. With the latter she has recorded the works of Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Gerald Finzi and CV Stanford, and has toured internationally to the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Australia. She is currently a choral scholar with the Choir of All Saint's, Orpington.

As a soloist, Madeleine has appeared in performances of Handel’s Messiah, Bach's B Minor Mass and Purcell’s Hail Bright Cecilia. Her most recent operatic performances include singing the role of Susanna in Puzzle Piece Opera's production of The Marriage of Figaro, and as a chorus member in The Elixir of Love at Waterperry Opera Festival, where she was a Young Artist.

During her time at Trinity Laban, Madeleine has sung the roles of Noémie in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Echo in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, Eurydice in Offenbach's Orphée auf Enfers and L'Ensoleillad in Massenet's Chérubin. She is looking forward to completing her masters in the next year whilst embarking on some exciting projects with Levedy!

photo: Jamie Johnson

Tamsin Raitt

Soprano

Tamsin started her musical studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as a junior student where she was supported by the Rachel Barry Bursary awarded for ‘The Most Promising Young Singer’ at the North East of Scotland Music Festival.

She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Kathleen Livingstone and Iain Ledingham, and received a Bachelor of Music with First Class

Honours.

Tamsin enjoyed her time at the Academy where she was a soloist and chorus member for the Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series and the proud receiver of the 2017 Arthur Burcher Memorial Prize for the highest mark in her third year recital.

Tamsin performs regularly for oratorio works and has performed in venues such as Cadogan Hall and De Montfort Hall. Upcoming engagements include Hadyn’s The Creation and Faure’s Requiem.

Tamsin is also an active choral singer. Tamsin sang in the Academy’s chamber choir on their annual tour to Neresheim Abbey in Southern Germany for three year’s running and was a soloist for their 25th Anniversary concert. She was a 22/23 fellow of St Martin’s Voices at St Martin-in-the-Fields, where she still performs regularly.

When not performing, Tamsin works in the Personnel team at Wigmore Hall which she enjoys very much.

Olivia Bell

Mezzo soprano

Olivia is a mezzo soprano with particular interest in contemporary and innovative repertoire. She completed her performance master's with distinction as Kathleen Roberts scholar from Trinity Laban Conservatoire studying under Tessa Cahill, winning the university's Gold Medal and the Director’s Award for Excellence. She previously read English as senior choral scholar at Queens’ College, Cambridge.

Olivia also as an opera writer: last year she was appointed junior fellow at the Guildhall School of Music, having graduated with distinction from their Opera Makers MA as a librettist in collaboration with the Royal Opera House. Recent commissions include for the ROH and Carnegie Hall, with upcoming works including a song cycle for Glyndebourne Opera House in the Spring and a full-scale climate opera in Lucerne, Switzerland. She is currently in her first year of PhD study at the Guildhall.

Recent opera credits include Gretel/Griselda [The Hive, Hoxton Halls]; First Witch [Dido and Aeneas, Hurn Court Opera]; Mother Goose [The Rake’s Progress, Aylesbury Opera]; King Harald's Saga [King's Place]; Haitch [Syllable,TheatreO].

Olivia's studies have been variously supported by Guildhall scholarships, a Trinity Laban award, grants from the Split Infinitive Trust, the Kathleen Trust and the Yorkshire Ladies’ Council of Education, a bursary from Rose Opera and a choral scholarship at St Gabriel’s, Pimlico. She is grateful for the continued support of News UK and the Times, where she works on the news desk.

Helena Cooke

Mezzo soprano

London-based mezzo Helena Cooke studies singing with Veronica Veysey-Campbell.

After graduating from The University of York with a first class honours degree in Music, Helena worked as a Lay Clerk with the Choir of Clare College Cambridge, recording and touring extensively.

Since then, Helena has enjoyed a busy freelance career in London. She has worked with a large number of groups including BBC Singers, English Concert, Recordare, Sonoro, and Britten Sinfonia Voices. She has also done film session work with London Voices and RSVP Voices. Helena is a regular alto in the choir of HM Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London

Recent solo highlights include Bruckner Te Deum in York Minster, Haydn's Harmoniemesse at the Stour Festival, and Haydn Nelson Mass with the Oxford Philharmonic. In 2022, Helena performed the role of Sorceress in Hampstead Garden Opera's production of Dido and Aeneas. She has also performed Britten's Canticle Abraham and Isaac with Mark Padmore at the St Endellion Summer Music Festival. She will soon feature as one of the solo female voices recording Paul Bowles' setting of Yerma with the English Chamber Orchestra.

Alongisde singing, Helena is also an award-winning photographer and regularly shoots for all kinds of musicians and groups.

She works as the Chorus Fixer/Manager for the St Endellion Summer Music Festival.

Laudine Dard

Harpist

Laudine Dard, praised as a lively and engaging harpist, is much in demand internationally as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician. Passionate about chamber music, she plays frequently with several ensembles. Recent solo repertoire includes the Dances by Debussy and the Concerto for flute and harp by Mozart.

Laudine has played with many orchestras such as the London City Philharmonic, the CBSO Youth Orchestra, the Swiss Youth Orchestra (SJSO) and the Orchestre Symphonique Genevois. She performs regularly in prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall in London, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Tonhalle in Zürich and the Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Laudine studied in Geneva Conservatoire and in Vienna with Julia Reth. She was then awarded a scholarship to study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London with Gabriella Dall’Olio and Frances Kelly.

She was selected to perform in masterclasses with Marie-Pierre Langlamet (Berliner Philharmoniker), Fabrice Pierre, Emmanuel Ceysson and Germaine Lorenzini among others to perfect her playing.