Sarah Leonard
Sarah Leonard is one of Great Britains most versatile sopranos. She studied at the The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and performs a wide-ranging repertoire throughout the world. She has performed in major concert halls and festivals, including the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival, Lucerne International Festival, Salzburg, Holland, Strasbourg, Venice Biennale, and the Perth Festival.
She is closely associated with the music of the 20th century and has worked with many leading composers, such as Birtwistle, Boulez, Bryars, Dusapin, Ferneyhough, Kurtag, John Harle, Richard Rodney Bennett, Klaus Huber, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Michael Nyman and Sciarrino.
Opera performances include Dr. Faustus by Giaccomo Manzoni, La Scala, Milan, To Be Sung, by Pascal Dusapin, Theatre des Amandiers, Paris, Aventures e Nouvelles Aventures, Ligeti, with the Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt, Dirty Tricks, Paul Barker, Spitalfields Opera, London, and Al Gran Sole carico d'amore Luigi Nono, Hamburg State Opera.
Highlights from her concert appearances include Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien, San Francisco Symphony, Kreneck's Die Nachtigal, LSO both conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, Ligeti's Requiem, Hilversum Radio Orchestra, with Peter Eotvos, Messien's Poemes pour Mi, Austrian Radio Orchestra, with Michael Gielen, Webern Cantata's 1 & 2, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Pierre Boulez, and Offrandes, Varese, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Riccardo Chailly. She performs regularly with many chamber ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Endymion Ensemble, Ensemble Recherche and Ensemble Intercontemporain, and frequently gives song recitals .
Sarah Leonard has made numerous recordings and has embarked on a project to record a series of six CDs of A Century English Song with pianist Malcolm Martineau. Other releases include "Canti di Vita e d'amore" Luigi Nono, with the Bamburg Symphony Orchestra conductor Ingo Metzmacher, Michael Nymans' opera The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat, When the heart is Young, a CD of songs by Franz Lehar, Neither, by Morton Feldman, Hat Hut Records, Alistair Hinton's String Quintet with soprano, Altarus Records, O Domina Nostra, Gorecki, with Christopher Bowers - Broadbent, organ, and Arvo Pärt's Miserere, with the Hilliard Ensemble, both ECM Records.
Engagements in the 2000/2001 season include Ligeti's Aventures e Nouvelles Aventures with the Ensemble Modern in Hamburg, a concert performance of Elliot Carters' new opera What Next in Amsterdam, Berio's Labarintus II at Genoa Opera House, Italy, and performances of Helmut Lachenmann's opera Das Madchen mit den Schwefelholzern in Tokyo, Salzburg, Stuttgart and Paris.