Leah Crocetto
© Kristin Hoebermann
About
Recognized as a rising star in the next generation of singers, Leah Crocetto represented the United States at the 2011 Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition where she was a finalist in the Song Competition. She is a 2010 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was the First Place Winner, People's Choice and the Spanish Prize Winner of the 2009 José Iturbi International Music Competition, and winner of the Bel Canto Foundation competition. A former Adler fellow at San Francisco Opera, Ms. Crocetto has appeared frequently with the company, most recently in the role of Liu in Turandot.
Leah Crocetto begins the current season singing a concert of sacred pieces by Verdi with Orchestre National de France under the direction of Daniele Gatti. She returns to Opera de Bordeaux to sing Desdemona in Otello, and she returns to Frankfurt Opera for her first performances of Alice Ford in Falstaff. Her concert engagements take her to the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis, California, the Green Music Center in Sonoma, California and the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. She sings the Verdi Requiem with San Francisco Opera and with the Radio Orchestra of Saarbrücken, Germany. She makes her debut with Pittsburgh Opera singing her first performances of Mimi in La bohème, and she performs Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.
Ms. Crocetto began the 2012-2013 season with her debut in Venice, singing Desdemona in Otello at Teatro la Fenice. She reprised the role with the company in their tour of Japan later in the season, as well as with Frankfurt Opera in her company debut. Ms. Crocetto also made her debut with the Israeli Opera as the title role of Luisa Miller. She joined the Calgary Philharmonic in performances of the Verdi Requiem, and she returned to Italy to sing Leonora in Il trovatore in her debut at the Arena di Verona.
In the 2011-2012 season, Ms. Crocetto continued to make important debuts on stages around the world. She began the season in her role debut as Liù in Turandot for San Francisco Opera, and was featured by the prestigious San Francisco Performances on their 32nd Annual Gala Concert. She made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in performances of Poulenc's Gloria with Nicola Luisotti conducting, with Houston Grand Opera as Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, and with North Carolina Opera as Leonora in Il trovatore. In the summer of 2012, she made her debut with The Santa Fe Opera to great acclaim as Anna in Rossini's Maometto II in a new production by David Alden.
Ms. Crocetto's 2010–2011 season included her European debut as Leonora in Il trovatore with Opéra National de Bordeaux and performances of Verdi's Requiem with Columbus Symphony and Albany Symphony. She returned to her hometown for a gala concert of opera and musical theatre with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra and was featured in a gala opera concert with the Toronto Symphony. She finished the season with performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" at the Grand Tetons Music Festival with Donald Runnicles, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl.
Ms. Crocetto began the 2009 – 2010 with San Francisco Opera's production of Il Trittico in Suor Angelica and covered the roles of Leonora in Il trovatore and Desdemona in Otello. She joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel for performances of Verdi's Requiem; a piece she prepared with Riccardo Muti for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Also, she was featured in a Schwabacher Recital for the San Francisco Opera. Further concert performances included Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with San Francisco Opera and Nicola Luisotti, and Handel's Messiah in Anchorage.
Ms. Crocetto holds degrees from Siena Heights University in acting performance and Moody Bible Institute in vocal studies. She is a former member of the Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artists Program where she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro and in La Rondine. She was a member of San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program, where she performed scenes from Manon, Don Pasquale and sang the roles of two Verdi heroines, Luisa Miller and Leonora in Il trovatore on the Grand Finale Concert. Of this performance, San Francisco Chronicle said Crocetto has a "powerful Verdi voice and formidable precision technique, and intensity that amplifies an already huge voice, and an innate, irresistible musicality." San Francisco Classical voice said, "In thirty years of exciting discoveries, listening to each group of Merolini for the first time, I have never experienced a singer as complete and awesome as Crocetto."