Hailed by Opera News for her “lovely plush lyric mezzo,” Leah Wool is quickly garnering critical acclaim on stages across the country. Ms. Wool is the recipient of a 2008 Sullivan Foundation Award.
In the 2007-2008 season, Ms. Wool appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for Le nozze di Figaro, War & Peace, and Hänsel und Gretel, and as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel with the Newton Symphony. She will sing Angelina in La Cenerentola with both Opera New Jersey and Opera Fairbanks in the summer of 2008, before reprising the role in February 2009 with Orlando Opera. The 2008-2009 season will also find her as Meg in Little Women with Syracuse Opera, Amastre in Xerxes with Boston Baroque, and a return to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Myrtale in Thaïs. In the summer of 2009, Ms. Wool will make her debut with Glimmerglass Opera as the Secretary in Menotti's The Consul.
Notable past performances include the Second Novice in Suor Angelica at the Metropolitan Opera, the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon with Central City Opera, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette with Toledo Opera, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Newton Symphony, Erika in Vanessa at Central City Opera, Delia in Il Viaggio a Reims at New York City Opera, Nancy in Albert Herring with Gotham Chamber Opera, and Léoena in La Belle Hélène with Santa Fe Opera. She is a frequent presence at Utah Opera, where she has been heard as Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Karolka in Jenůfa, The Sandman in Hansel and Gretel, Kate in The Pirates of Penzance, and Wowkle in La Fanciulla del West.
Sought after on the concert stage, she has appeared as mezzo-soprano soloist for works including Haydn's Theresienmesse with the New Jersey Symphony, Handel's Messiah with the Utah Symphony, Duruflé's Requiem with the Greenwich Choral Society, Vivaldi's Gloria with the New Haven Symphony, Bruckner's Missa Solemnis with the Manchester Symphony, and Bach's Magnificat, Stravinsky's Les Noces, and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass at Yale University.
Ms. Wool was a Second Place Winner in the 2005 Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Vocal Competition and subsequently made her Alice Tully Hall debut in the Foundation’s gala concert, receiving praise from Opera News as "the afternoon's most arresting voice." A two-time Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she has also received an Encouragement Grant from the Sullivan Foundation Awards, the Judith Raskin Memorial Award from Santa Fe Opera, and was the First-Place Winner of the Amici Vocal Competition in 2003. She was also the 2002 recipient of the Presser Award, a prestigious study grant from The Presser Foundation and the Yale School of Music.
Ms. Wool has been a Young Artist at Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Utah Symphony & Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera North, and the Caramoor Festival. She holds an Artist Diploma and Master of Music from Yale University and received her Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from Westminster Choir College. Ms. Wool is a native of Long Island, New York.
