Kim Leeds, Mezzo-soprano

With her "vivid, deeply satisfying sound" and “rich, smooth mezzo soprano”, Kim Leeds engages audiences in her exploration of life’s essence through music. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Bach Akademie Charlotte, Ad Astra Musical Festival, American Bach Soloists Academy, Handel Society of Dartmouth, Bach Society of St. Louis, the Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Orchestra and Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival Discovery Series. Over the years, Ms. Leeds has garnered multiple accolades including winning the Tafelmusik Vocal Competition in 2016, attending the Carmel Bach Festival as a Virginia Best Adams Fellow in 2017, is currently a semi-finalist for the American Prize in Oratorio and Art Song, and this summer will be working with Philippe Herreweghe as a Britten-Pears Young Artist in their Bach Cantata programme.

 Ms. Leeds enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire from Zelenka and Barbara Strozzi, to Janacek, Irving Fine, and Poulenc as well as sung premieres of works by James MacMillan, Richard Danielpour, James Kallembach, and Julia Wolfe. As a choral artist, Ms. Leeds has toured with Helmuth Rilling in Eastern Germany as a member of the Weimar Bach Academy and toured Northern Italy and Southern Germany with the Junges Stuttgart Bach Ensemble. In the US, she has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival, Handel and Haydn Society, and this season joins GRAMMY® nominated True Concord, GRAMMY® winning ensemble the Crossing, and the Gramaphone award-winning ensemble Blue Heron.

In her hometown of Boston, Ms. Leeds has appeared as a soloist with the Commonwealth Chorale, Cantata Singers, Music at Marsh Chapel, and can be heard on the 2017 Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s recording of Jeremy Gill’s “Before the Wresting Tides”. Ms. Leeds holds degrees from Mannes College of Music and the Boston Conservatory.