Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Soprano Leah Hawkins is a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera, and 2021 winner of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Women in Classical Music Career Advancement Award.

Leah beings the 21/22 season making her debut at the Opéra national de Paris in 7 Deaths of Maria Callas (Desdemona) before returning to the roster of The Metropolitan Opera for Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Porgy & Bess (Strawberry Woman). She makes her Des Moines Metro Opera debut in Porgy & Bess (Serena). Concert engagements include Voices United with Minnesota Opera, Songs of the Harlem Renaissance with New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the title role in Adriana Lecouvreur with Baltimore Concert Opera. Future engagements include a return to The Metropolitan Opera to star in Anthony Davis’ X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Louise/Betty) and La Bohème (Musetta) and debut at The Santa Fe Opera.

Last season Leah debuted at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 7 Deaths of Maria Callas (Desdemona). Additional 20/21 engagements include debuts with Portland Opera for Journeys to Justice, Tulsa Opera for Greenwood Overcomes, Song of America: Celebration of Black Music with the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and a SummerStage recital in Central Park with The Metropolitan Opera.

While in the Lindemann Program at The Metropolitan Opera she was seen in Porgy & Bess (Strawberry Woman), Pique Dame (Masha), Suor Angelica (Alms Collector), and Aida (High Priestess). She made her Colorado Symphony debut in the Verdi Requiem, gave a recital at the Park Avenue Armory, and returned to the National Symphony Orchestra for a Labor Day Concert. Ms. Hawkins is an alumna of the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington National Opera, where she appeared in the world premiere of Mazzoli’s Proving Up (Mrs. Johannes “Ma” Zegner), Don Carlo (Celestial Voice), Fairouz’s The Dictator’s Wife, Blanchard’s Champion (Cousin Blanche/Sadie Griffith), Glass’ Appomattox (Mrs. Dorsey/Amelia Boynton), and in Justice at the Opera with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, performing scenes from Aida and Un ballo in maschera with the Washington National Opera Orchestra.

On the concert stage she has appeared with Yale Philharmonia in Mahler Symphony No. 2, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Porgy and Bess (Serena) with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and in A Space Odyssey with The Philadelphia Orchestra. She appeared with The Apollo Orchestra in Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in A Celebration of Black History where she performed Knoxville: Summer of 1915, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Holiday Joy, the National Symphony Orchestra in Songfest by Leonard Bernstein, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in a concert of vocal works by Beethoven, as a guest artist in concert in Accra, Ghana, and at The White House, singing for the President of France. Leah is a 2018 Sullivan Foundation Award Winner, and the 2018 recipient of The Richard F. Gold Career Grant (The Shoshana Foundation) from Washington National Opera. She has received awards from The Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera Vocal Competition, The Chautauqua Opera Guild, Yale School of Music, George London Foundation, Marcello Giordani Foundation, Opera Ebony, NANBPWC, Inc., and The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Leah received her Master of Music in Voice from Yale University and Bachelor of Arts in Music from Morgan State University.