“Characterful singing came from Leigh Woolf in two fine, spirited Mendelssohn performances.”

Musicweb

“Leigh Woolf sang with velvety, plangent tone in the role of his lovesick son.”

The Times

“Attention to detail, devotion to the music... very musical... it touched me.”

Vladimir Ashkenazy

“The soloist was magnificently aided by the profoundly sympathetic playing of Peter Hewitt, whose characterisation and expressive instincts matched the singer’s to remarkable effect.”

Winterreise Review 2003

Leigh Woolf, mezzo-soprano, studied as an undergraduate at the Royal College of Music with Margaret Cable and also on the Opera Course as a Senior Exhibitioner with Kathleen Livingstone. Whilst at the RCM she won prizes for Lieder, English Song, interpretations of Bach and Handel and recital singing before graduating with first class diplomas in recital and opera. She currently studies with Paul Farrington and is a Samling Foundation Scholar.

On the concert platform Leigh has sung much of the major repertoire, ranging from Purcell to Tippett, performing with conductors and orchestras including Sir David Willcocks, Sir John Eliot Gardiner (the English Baroque Soloists) and Thomas Zehetmair (Northern Sinfonia).

Her operatic roles include covering Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) for Glyndebourne on Tour, covering Euphemia (Leoncavallo's La Boheme) for ENO, Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) for Tête à Tête, Kate (Owen Wingrave), Idelberto (Lotario), Nancy (Albert Herring), Second Lady (The Magic Flute), Andronico (Giustino) and Vitellia (Tito Manlio) for La Serenissima, both of which were broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Recent performances have included Brahms' Liebeslieder at Wigmore Hall, a Gala Concert for the Samling Foundation alongside Sir Thomas Allen, Mary in Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ in Winchester Cathedral, Bach Mattheus Passion with Peter Schreier, the world premier of The Devil's Drum by Edward Dudley Hughes in the Purcell Room, a recital in the Chichester Festival as the winner of the John Warner Memorial Prize and The Angel in The Dream of Gerontius at Snape Maltings. She also received the Leith Hill Music Festival Award and has appeared in recital St. Martin-in-the-fields and with Malcolm Martineau at St. John's, Smith Square.

Future engagements include Bach's Mass in B minor at Peterborough Cathedral and a recital with her husband, baritone Christopher Maltman.