Soprano Lesley Anne Friend, has been honored as a Metropolitan Opera National Council Awards Semi-Finalist, by the Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition, Marguerite McCammon Vocal Competition, Connecticut Concert Opera, the Orpheus Competition, and the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. Her roles include the title roles in Ariadne auf Naxos and Tosca, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Fiordiligi in Così fan Tutte, Alma in Hoiby’s Summer & Smoke, Masha in Wargo’s The Music Shop, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Desdemona in Otello, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, Helmwige in Die Walküre, Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda, the title role in Suor Angelica, and Magda Sorel in The Consul. Lesley has worked with Sarasota Opera, Opera Memphis, Baltimore Concert Opera, and Opera on the Avalon.
Lesley has long been passionate about new works and less-performed repertoire. She has performed in regional and world premieres of works by numerous composers, including American composers Zachery Redler and Stephen Schwartz: singing Magnanimous in Windows and Myra Foster in Seance on a Wet Afternoon respectively. Her orchestral work includes Varese’s Offrandes, the music of Harry Partch, and Ginastera’s Cantata para América Mágica in celebration of the composer’s 100th birthday at Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center.
Ms. Friend sang her first Verdi Requiem with Boston’s Chorus Pro Musica and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Hartt School of Music Choirs and Orchestra and the New Haven Chorale. She has also performed Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer 1915 with the Indiana University Orchestra. Lesley received her B.M. cum laude in Vocal Performance from Montclair State University and her M.M. in Opera from The Boston Conservatory. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University studying with Carol Vaness.
Locally, Lesley performs with the Virginia Opera and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. She teaches private voice and teaches voice and music at Norfolk State University and Elizabeth City State University. Visit www.LesleyAnneFriend.com for more information.