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 at venues and festivals including Edinburgh International Festival and Barbican Centre.
Recent highlight performances 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. For Scottish Opera she has performed several times as the Soprano Soloist for the Pop-Up Opera Tour, Euridice Orfeo & Euridice with the Young Company, Sandman (Cover) Hansel and Gretel, Cis/Emmie/Harry (Cover) Albert Herring, Eurydice Orpheus in the Underworld (Education Tour) and Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Further operatic roles include Edelknabe Lohengrin (Bayreuth Festival), Damigella & Venere L’incoronazione di Poppea (Aldeburgh), Iphis Jephtha (Iford Opera). On the concert platform, Jessica has sung regularly with Dunedin Consort in works such as Bach St Matthew Passion and Blow Venus and Adonis (Cupid), and Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (recorded for BBC Radio 3).
Alongside her singing work, Jessica holds teaching posts at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, and is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
