DENISE LEIGH

Soprano

Born in Audley, Staffordshire, Denise Leigh began her career as a brass player, before gaining a Sainsbury’s Gatsbey Trust award to continue her studies. Awarded a place at the Royal Northern College of Music, she continues to study with Claire Hogan-Taylor and Lillian Watson. She first came to wider prominence as a Winner of the English National Opera / Channel 4 TV programme Operatunity, which won the Prix Italia 2003, and led to an appearance as Gilda Rigoletto (shared with her Co-Winner Jane Gilchrist) at the London Coliseum. She has since returned to ENO for Orlando Gough’s For the Public Good and other stage work has included Russell Barr’s play The Super / Naughty XXXmas Story at Wilton’s Music Hall.

Denise Leigh has appeared with Clonter Opera as well as at the BBC Proms in the Park, Belfast Proms in the Park, Friday Night is Music Night and Songs of Praise. She undertook an extensive concert tour, A Night at the Opera, with Jane Gilchrist, Alan Oke and Wyn Pencarreg, and has also appeared on Counterpoint and presented In Touch for the BBC. Other engagements have taken her to the Royal Albert Hall for Classic FM live with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the Chester Summer Music Festival and the Three Choirs Festival, Hereford.

She sings regularly in concert, her recent engagements including the Brahms Requiem in St Albans Abbey and Rochester Cathedral, Messiah at the London Handel Festival, with the Nottingham Harmonic Society and with the Orchestra of St John’s, Samson with the Brook Street Band, the Utrecht Te Deum for the Ten Tors Orchestra, Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Orchestral Musicians of Northern Ireland, Mozart Mass in C Minor for Angmering Chorale, Choir 2000, Cambridge, and the Isle of Wight Cantata Choir, Mozart Requiem for the Galway Choral Association, Haydn's Maria Theresa Mass and Beethoven's Mass in C OP. 85 in Aberdeen and Dorking, Carmina Burana at The Mote Hall, Maidstone, and The Swan Theatre, High Wycombe and the Mostly Mozart Tour for Calibre Productions.

Further engagements in 2008 included, The Samsung Concert of Excellence 2008 as part of the Olympic festival in Beijing, as well as return visits to the Battle Proms 2008 and Music by Moonlight in Dubai.

highlights of 2009 have included return visits to the battle proms, a performance of Haydn's Nelson Mass with the Ceramic City Choir, Brahms' requiem with the Galway Choral Association, a performance of Mozart's Requiem and Solemn Vespers at Chester Cathedral, a return to the three Choirs Festival 2009 and many duo recitals with her husband, classical accordionist, Stefan Andrusyschyn.

Highlights of 2010 have so far included a performance of the Verdi Requiem with the Leicester Symphony Orchestra at the De Montfort Hall, a recital at the Duke of Westminster's Chester Residence and an appearance as a consultant on Channel 4's "How to Look Good Naked".

Further plans for 2010 include a return to the Battle Proms, Poulenc's Gloria for the Treasury Choral Society, Handel's Messiah for the Ceramic City choir and a visit to rome to perform Bach's cantata 51, Vivaldi's Gloria and Mozart's Requiem with the Tribal Chamber choir, as well as a number of corporate events for RNIB, for whom she is an ambassador, most notably for the Worshipful company of stationers, as well as duo recitals with Stefan at Bath abbey and for the Heywards Heath music society.

The CD Operatunity Winners on EMI Classics, was a best seller in Britain and Northern Europe, gaining a silver disc, staying in the Classic FM top ten for 16 weeks and remaining at the number one position in the core Classical Chart for five months. It was also nominated for a BRIT award. Denise Leigh’s début solo CD Pie Jesu is also available on EMI.

In 2008, Denise Leigh was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Staffordshire University for Services to Music.  She also enjoys her work as a patron for the Music of Life Foundation, a charity aiming to integrate disabled musicians into mainstream performance and has worked tirelessly as a cultural ambasador for the 2012 London olympic bid.