<Davis>

Leslie Davis Mezzo Soprano

Recipient of INDEPENDENT OPERA Postgraduate Voice Fellowship 2010-2012

Canadian mezzo soprano Leslie Davis graduated from the Royal Academy Opera in 2010, studying with Lillian Watson and Ingrid Surgenor. Most recently, her “nimble ways” (The Times) performed as Nancy (Albert Herring) for RAO under Nicholas Kok and John Copley. In the autumn of 2009 she made her Irish debut at the Wexford Festival as The Duchess/Woman with Hat (The Ghosts of Versailles) and as Zefka (Zápisník zmizelého) with Adrian Thompson. In Canada, Leslie has been showcased at the Banff Summer Festival in a staged version of Britten’s cantata Phaedra, in a performance of Berg's Sieben Frühe Lieder under Henk Guittart, and in summer 2009 she returned to the festival to sing The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen) under David Agler.

Among her operatic credits are Ernestina (L'occasione fa il ladro) under Dominic Wheeler for RAO, Lola (Cavalleria Rusticana) under Paolo Olmi, and Rosina (The Barber of Seville) in Pacific Opera Victoria’s Young Artist Program (Canada).

Leslie’s recent engagements include Mama/Tzippy in Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are under Julian Kuerti at the Tanglewood Music Festival (USA), roles which she will reprise for New York City Opera in the spring of 2011, Candy Mallow (The Golden Ticket) for Wexford Festival Opera and Der Komponist (cover – Ariadne auf Naxos) for Opéra National de Bordeaux.

Leslie is the recipient of a British Columbia Arts Council Award, a Royal Bank of Canada Youth Excellence Scholarship, the Kathleen Bayfield Award, a prize winner at the Ochestre Symphonique de Montreal Standard Life Competition (2008) and is a finalist in the upcoming Richard Tauber Prize for Singers at the Wigmore Hall.