She made her propitious debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2007, in Roméo et Juliette, and continues her prominent position in the Met circle, including an acclaimed lead role in Nico Muhly’s Marnie in 2018. Leonard, an Academy fellow in 2005, began her meteoric rise to acclaim and an established role in the opera world and beyond soon after leaving Santa Barbara. Marilyn Horne (center) with Isabel Leonard and guests at the 2016 Music Academy of the West Gala. Unfortunately, Leonard’s planned appearance at Saturday’s festival-launching Gala was curtailed by illness. Leonard, very much midstream in a stellar career, paid respects to her beloved early academic stomping grounds in a special “Mosher Guest Artist” recital in 2019, before COVID’s debilitating blow against live music. By rules of natural selection and mentorship, the stellar alumni list of academy-polished opera stars includes Thomas Hampson, Brenda Rae, Nadine Sierra, Sasha Cooke (on campus this summer), Juan Diego Flórez, and, not least, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. Eminent mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne has robustly led the voice department in recent years, remaining the voice program’s honorary head.
Among other forces at work, the power of voice - and world-renowned voices, at that - has been embedded in the organization’s DNA from the outset.įamed soprano Lotte Lehmann was a founding force at the Academy, and baritone Martial Singher was also among the early pioneers. As the Music Academy of the West launches into the eight-week pageantry of its 75th anniversary season, the milestone naturally inspires reflections on the root system of this progressive operation.
0 kommentar(er)
