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The English mezzo-soprano, Rebecca Leggett, completed her undergraduate degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire (2014-2018), graduating with First Class Honours, the TCM Trust Silver Medal for Voice and the Alan J Kirby Conducting Prize. She is a recent masters graduate of the Royal College of Music (2018-2020), where she was an Ian Evans Lombe Scholar and learnt with Alison Wells. She was the recipient of the Coro Nuovo Young Musician of the Year 2018, a competition that supports young musicians from Sussex. At the RCM, she took part in Song Plus recitals run by Audrey Hyland and was the winner of the 2020 Brooks-van der Pump English Song Competition. She also received Highly Commended at the internal Lieder competition. During her time at Trinity Laban she was awarded the Wilfred Greenhouse Allt Prize for Oratorio & Cantata and first prize in the Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Competition, with pianist Ashley Beauchamp. In 2019, she received the Audience Prize at the 2019 Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards at the Wigmore Hall.
Rebecca Leggett made her operatic debut in the role of Flora in Benjamin Britten's Turn of the Screw for the Florence opera house (Opera di Firenze, Maggio Musicale) in Italy, and understudied the role on the Glyndebourne Tour - an opportunity that arose from her time spent in Glyndebourne Youth Opera. Other opera roles include creating the character of Charlotte in the world premiere of Stephen McNeff's Banished with Trinity Laban Opera, Zerlina (cover) and chorus in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni with Headfirst Productions, Third Spirit in W.A. Mozart's The Magic Flute with Hampstead Garden Opera, Gossip in B. Britten's Noye’s Fludde and First Witch in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas both with Blackheath Halls Opera. Opera scenes include Miss Todd in Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief, Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Cenerentola in Rossini's La Cenerentola, Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Nancy in B. Britten's Albert Herring.
In the 2019 festival season, Rebecca Leggett joined The Grange Festival Chorus for a rare staging of George Frideric Handel's Belshazzar in collaboration with The Sixteen as part of their 40th anniversary celebrations, conducted by Harry Christophers and directed by Daniel Slater. In the autumn of 2020, she took part in outdoor concerts for Nevill Holt Opera conducted by Nicholas Chalmers and gave a solo recital of Charles Griffes songs for the London Song Festival with Nigel Foster.
Rebecca Leggett is a keen concert soloist, regularly performing J.S. Bach's oratorios and other major early music works with groups such as the Baroque Collective, led by Alison Bury. Concert highlights include J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243) at Cadogan Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Copland’s In the Beginning at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Edward Elgar's Sea Pictures with the North Wiltshire Symphony Orchestra and G.F. Handel's Israel in Egypt at St. Johns Smith Square.
For three years, Rebecca Leggett was a choral scholar at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel Choir with Ralph Allwood MBE and a member of the Trinity Laban Chamber Choir with Stephen Jackson. She was also a member of the prestigious Genesis Sixteen led by Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan and is now a regular alto deputy at various London churches. Rebeca is also the alto for 'Seraphim' a London based consort group directed by Robert Mingay-Smith. |
