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Isabel Leonard

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Isabel Leonard (born February 18, 1982)[1] is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer based in New York City. She is of Argentine ancestry on her mother's side.[2]

Education

Leonard was born in New York City. For five years she sang with the Manhattan School of Music children's chorus. She attended the Joffrey Ballet School.[3] She is a graduate of The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. She earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the Juilliard School, where she was a pupil of Edith Bers. She has also studied with Marilyn Horne, Brian Zeger, Warren Jones, and Margo Garrett. She is a 2005 winner of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition. In 2006, she received The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Award. She was also chosen as a recipient of a Movado Future Legends award in 2006. In 2013, she received the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Award.

Career

In New York, Leonard has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center[4] and with the Juilliard Opera Center.[5] Her first appearance with the New York Philharmonic was in a concert version of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, and she later sang the part of the Squirrel in L'enfant et les sortilèges in concert with the orchestra and Lorin Maazel.[6] In February 2007, Leonard made her professional operatic stage debut as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette.[2] In September 2007, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the same role.[7] Leonard made her debut with Santa Fe Opera as Cherubino in 2008.[8] Her commercial recordings include a DVD recording for Euroarts as Dorabella in the 2009 Salzburg Festival production of Così fan tutte.[9] On April 26, 2014, Leonard sang the role of Dorabella in a performance at the Metropolitan Opera that was transmitted worldwide as part of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD program. In February 2011, Leonard made her Vienna State Opera debut singing Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, returning to the venue in January 2012 as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. 2014 to 2016 Leonard and Sharon Isbin performed a well-received series of eleven soprano/guitar-duet recitals,[10] including at Zankel Hall (Carnegie Hall).[11] Leonard sang the lead role in the American premiere of Marnie at the Met in New York in October 2018.[12]

Leonard won two Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording: in 2014 for Thomas Adès' The Tempest, and in 2016 for Maurice Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges. In 2021 she won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium for From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations on Rilke, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

Her grandfather Carlos Guimard (1913–1998) was an Argentine chess grandmaster.[13] Leonard married baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes in December 2008; they divorced around 2013.[14] Leonard raises their son, Teo, born 17 May 2010.[3]

Repertory

References

  1. ^ Hall, Trish (January 26, 1989). "Child Care, as Seen by Children". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  2. ^ a b Driscoll, F. Paul (March 2008). "Sound Bites: Isabel Leonard". Opera News. 72 (9). Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Shattuck, Kathryn (November 12, 2010). "It's Not Over Till the Svelte Mama Sings". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  4. ^ Eichler, Jeremy (November 15, 2005). "A Mozart Clan: Nice Sounds Veiled by One Celestial Note". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  5. ^ Holland, Bernard (November 18, 2006). "A U.P.S. Man Joins Offenbach's Gods and Goddesses". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  6. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (October 7, 2006). "Childhood Fantasies, Without All the Cutesy". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  7. ^ Midgette, Anne (September 27, 2007). "The Lovers of Verona, Swaggering and Soaring". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2008.
  8. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (August 4, 2008). "From Handel, Faithlessness and Devotion". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2008.
  9. ^ Opera Today review of Euroarts DVD of Così fan tutte
  10. ^ Brookes, Stephen (March 25, 2015). "Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard shines with guitarist Sharon Isbin". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  11. ^ Schweitzer, Vivien (November 13, 2015). "Isabel Leonard and Sharon Isbin in a Duet of Voice and Guitar". The New York Times. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  12. ^ Woolfe, Zachary (November 22, 2017). "Review: Nico Muhly's Marnie Brings Hitchcock Into the 21st Century". The New York Times.
  13. ^ @isabelleonardny (October 12, 2020). "Post by Isabel Leonard about her ancestral village of Santiago Del Estero, Argentina and her chess-champion grandfather". Retrieved October 17, 2020 – via Instagram.
  14. ^ Tischler, Gary (April 19, 2018). "Isabel Leonard WNOs Rosina". Georgetowner. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  15. ^ "Isabel Leonard".
  16. ^ Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Dialogues des Carmélites to conclude his first season as Met Music Director. April 19th, 2019
  17. ^ Cunning Little Vixen
  18. ^ Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a rare revival of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, opening January 15. December 14th, 2018
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