Soprano Anna Leese is the recipient of an impressive number of Australasian awards and prizes, including the Royal Overseas League Vocal competition (being named best overseas competitor in the same competition) and the Richard Tauber Prize as well as the Maggie Teyte and Sybil Tutton awards. Anna represented New Zealand in the Cardiff Singer of the World competition and is now a vocal tutor and doctoral candidate at Otago University, where she is researching co-composition between singers and conductors in Aotearoa, NZ.
Anna Leese has performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Tamiri (Il Re Pastore), Musetta (La bohème), Micaela (Carmen), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte) and Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos); Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) for the Classical Opera Company; Musetta at the Royal Albert Hall; Antonia (Les contes d’Hoffmann) for Opera Köln; Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) for Flanders Opera and Opera Holland Park; Biancofiore (Francesca di Rimini),and Musetta with the Canadian Opera Company; and Ilia (Idomeneo), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Tatyana, and Majenka (The Bartered Bride) Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and The Governess (Turn of the Screw) for New Zealand Opera.
On the concert platform she has appeared with Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington at the BBC Proms, Malaysian Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and given recitals at the Wigmore Hall.
Most recently, Anna has sung at the Adam Chamber Music Festival; Dunedin Symphony’s A Night at the Opera; Messiah with Queensland Symphony and Royal Melbourne Philharmonic; A Baroque Easter and the Opera Gala with the APO; Haydn Nelson Mass, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 with Auckland Choral Society, and featured at Nelson’s Opera in the Park, Rotorua’s Lakeside Concert, SPARKS Christchurch and at Dunedin Arts Festival.
Anna Leese’s recordings include Elgar’s The Apostles, a recital disc with Graham Johnson, and Haydn: ‘Italian Love Songs’.