Described as ‘a polished and radiant soprano’ (Opera Magazine), Jessica Leary has worked throughout the UK and abroad with companies including Scottish Opera, Bayreuth Festival, Grange Festival Opera, Buxton International Festival, Iford Arts, Dunedin Consort, RedNote Ensemble, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and OAE Choir, and at venues and festivals such as BBC London Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Wigmore Hall, and Barbican Centre.

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Projects this season include the role of Soprano Soloist Pop-Up Opera Tour and the roles of Emmie/Cis/Harry (cover), both with Scottish Opera. Other notable and recent highlights include her debut at the Edinburgh International Festival in the role of Lynne in Rodgers and Hammerstein's A Grand Night For Singing, Second Woman in the world premiere of Wallen's Dido's Ghost with Mahogany Opera at The Barbican Centre, London, and Tebaldo in Don Carlo for Grange Park Opera. 

 

Further operatic roles include Euridice Orfeo & Euridice, Sandman (Cover) Hansel and Gretel, Eurydice Orpheus in the Underworld (Education Tour), and Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream (all for Scottish Opera), 

Musetta La Boheme (Edinburgh International Festival, Schools Tour), 

Edelknabe Lohengrin (Bayreuth Festival), Damigella/Venere L’incoronazione di Poppea (Aldeburgh), Iphis Jephtha (Cover, Iford Opera), and Adina L’elisir d’amore, Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress, Lucia The Rape of Lucretia. 

 

Highlights on the concert platform include Bach St Matthew Passion, Blow Venus and Adonis (Cupid)  with Dunedin Consort; Bach A Christmas Oratorio with Dundee Choral Union; Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (recorded for BBC Radio 3), and Vaughan Williams A Pastoral Symphony with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. 

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Passionate about music education, Jessica has worked regularly with the education and outreach departments of companies including Scottish Opera, Dunedin Consort, Edinburgh International Festival, McOpera, LiveMusicNow, and Music in Hospitals.  Alongside her work as a singer, she is a visiting lecturer and vocal teacher at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, and an examiner for the ABRSM, and she is currently undertaking doctoral research into Opera Outreach work at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as a Carnegie Trust PhD Scholar.

 

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