Dramatic Soprano, Lesley Anne Friend, has been honored as a Metropolitan Opera National
Council Awards Semi-Finalist, and 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 Cos矛 fan Tutte, Alma in Hoiby鈥檚 Summer & Smoke, Erste Dame in Die Zauberfl枚te, Desdemona in Otello, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, Helmwige in Die Walk眉re, 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 Virginia Opera, 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鈥檚 Offrandes, the music of Harry Partch, and Ginastera鈥檚 Cantata para Am茅rica M谩gica in celebration of the composer鈥檚 100th birthday at Indiana University鈥檚 Latin American
Music Center. During Pride Month 2023, she was honored to perform a recital of music
by LGBTQ+ English & American composers.
Ms. Friend sang her first Verdi Requiem with Boston鈥檚 Chorus Pro Musica and Mahler鈥檚 Symphony No. 2 with the Hartt School of Music Choirs and Orchestra and the New Haven Chorale. She
also performed Samuel Barber鈥檚 Knoxville: Summer 1915 and Stravinsky鈥檚 Pulcinella with the Indiana University Orchestra. Lesley received her B.M. cum laude in Vocal
Performance from Montclair State University, her M.M. in Opera from The Boston Conservatory,
and an Artist Diploma from the University of Memphis. Currently, she is a doctoral
candidate in the final stage of completing her Doctor of Music in Vocal Performance
and Literature, with a minor in Music History at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana
University. Her doctoral research involves making musical theatre part of a traditional
music curriculum, and she is a student of Carol Vaness.
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