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Leah Hawkins
Artist Mentor

Soprano Leah Hawkins is the recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2024 Beverly Sills Artist Award and a graduate of their Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Additional honors include the Marian Anderson Award, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Women in Classical Music Career Advancement Award, and a Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant.

Highlights of the 24/25 season include her San Francisco Symphony debut in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem conducted by Esa Pekka-Salonen, and a return to Arizona Opera for her highly anticipated titular role debut in Aida. On the concert stage she returns to The Philadelphia Orchestra for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, joins The Apollo Orchestra as a guest soloist in a concert of Verdi Arias, and returns to the Park Avenue Armory for a self-curated recital entitled C’est ainsi que tu es or That is how you are, which is “a glimpse into my ongoing journey of finding, accepting, and living as my truest self.” Future engagements include debuts with La Monnaie / De Munt and The Dallas Opera, along with returns to the Metropolitan Opera and The Philadelphia Orchestra. 

Last season, Hawkins returned to the Metropolitan Opera as the Soprano Soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, and performed Musetta in La bohème with The Philadelphia Orchestra, both conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Other season engagements included a role debut in Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Louise/Betty) with the Metropolitan Opera and Seattle Opera. In the spring, she made her role and house debut at Dutch National Opera in a new production of Il tabarro (Giorgetta) directed by Barrie Kosky. On the concert stage she performed the Dvořák Requiem with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.