Sarah Leonard RIP

[Lordgeous]

Sad to read of the passing of distinguished soprano Sarah Leonard. To quote Slipped Disc: Starting out for five years in the BBC Singers, Sarah became a leading interpreter of new works by Birtwistle, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Boulez, Dusapin, Jonathan Harvey and more. She sang new operas at La Scala, Vienna, Paris and Hamburg. She toured with the Hilliard Ensemble in the music of Arvo Pärt, and sang with The Michael Nyman Band for fifteen years. She can be heard in the title music of the long running BBC TV series Silent Witness. She served for the past decade as Chair of the Association of English Singers and Speakers.

I only heard her 'live' once - a spine-tingling performance with the Michael Nyman Band - but also had the pleasure of recording her in 1994 for a CD of music by myself and flautist Tim Wheater..

[french frank]

As not unusual, Lebrecht is first with the news. I see she was the soloist in the first broadcast of the string quintet by Alistair Hinton, late of these boards, back in 2005.

[gurnemanz]

I first came across her via some lovely singing on the 2CD Portrait Of English Song accompanied by Malcolm Martineau.
As mentioned, a strong interpreter of new music. I have recordings of:
Luigi Nono - Canti di vita e d'amore
György Ligeti - Aventures

She will be much missed.

[Pulcinella]

Times obituary:

https://www.thetimes.com/article/900e2e9d-5c4c-44d3-b13e-f5b48dc441b8?shareToken=6830c42d9e7abbb9dac305cc93cb1fb0

[ahinton]

As not unusual, Lebrecht is first with the news. I see she was the soloist in the first broadcast of the string quintet by Alistair Hinton, late of these boards, back in 2005.

Indeed she was - and how! She had only around three weeks in which to learn her part (in the work's finale) and her brilliant singing as well as her instinctive sensitivity and musicianship had to be encountered to be disbelieved. There were only 9 consecutive days in which to rehearse the work from the ground up up to recording its last notes - not a whole lot of time for a 170-minute work. The players, also all excellent, loved working with Sarah, as indeed did I. Her repertoire was as immense as it was varied, from English song to Ferneyhough and Lachenmann to Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Joseph Marx - and the rest! Nothing seemed to be daunting to her.

All those who knew her, especially those who had the pleasure to work with her, will miss her terribly.

RIP, dear Sarah.