sylvia leith

Praised for her “plangent mezzo-soprano” (Washington Classical Review), Sylvia Leith is a soloist and consort singer whose repertoire spans the medieval to the contemporary. She has recently appeared as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Ensemble Altera, Tempesta di Mare, the IN Series, Emmanuel Music (Baltimore), St. John’s Music (Tulsa), and Washington Young Sinfonia, in repertoire including Handel’s Messiah, Duruflé’s Requiem, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Her operatic roles include Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring, and Lazuli in Chabrier’s L’étoile. Equally dedicated to ensemble singing, Sylvia appears on the rosters of Washington Bach Consort, Bach Akademie Charlotte, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, True Concord, Ensemble Altera, and the Thirteen; this season also marks her ensemble debuts with Bach Collegium San Diego, TENET, Lorelei, and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. With her special interest in one-per-part chamber singing, she is a founding member of the quartets of the Polyphonists and the Uncommon Music Festival. 

Sylvia earned her bachelor’s degree in German from Yale University, where she pursued diverse extracurricular performance activities, including seven principal opera roles, the Sprechgesang role in Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with players from the Yale School of Music, and a touring concert of the motets and lais of Philippe de Vitry. She then earned a master’s in Voice from Boston University, where she studied with Penelope Bitzas. Sylvia is an alumna of the Boston Early Music Festival Young Artist Training Program, the American Bach Soloists Academy, the SongFest Professional Program, and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Early Music Seminars in Venice, Italy. She was a finalist in the 2021 Bethlehem Bach Aria Competition, a semifinalist in the 2022 New York Oratorio Society Competition, and a Mid-Atlantic Regional Finalist in the 2019 NATS Artist Awards competition. 

Sylvia lives in New York City with her husband, bass-baritone Edmund Milly, and her little gray cat, Fanny. Hear more at sylvialeith.com.