Denise Leigh - Soprano
Biography
When Denise Leigh was a teenager, she auditioned for her local amateur dramatics group. They turned her down. "They said that their insurance wouldn't cover a blind person on stage", she says "but I think they just didn't like the idea of it." In 2003, she appeared with the English National Opera singing the principal soprano role in a special performance of Verdi's Opera Rigoletto at the Coliseum, London's largest theatre. Am Dram may have refused her, but the ENO welcomed her with open arms. If you're going to have the last laugh, you don't laugh much louder than that!Denise Marie Leigh was born with a condition resulting in blindness and grew up in the small Staffordshire village of Audley. Her mother, Maureen, was also blind and her father Dave, a fitter and welder by trade, suffered from arthritis of the spine and was eventually unable to work. Money was scarce, but Denise's parents were determined that she would receive a good education and that they would try to provide for every opportunity available to her, particularly where her first love music was concerned.
From her earliest childhood, Denise has loved music and began to learn the trombone when she was nine ("I've never been a particularly girlie girl"). However, as she wasn't physically big enough for the trombone she began to learn to play the trumpet then switched to the cornet as "the trumpet is an orchestral instrument and I was very laddish and really wanted to join a brass band".
Her ongoing collaboration with some of Britain's top brass bands and male voice choirs is a progression of her earliest musical roots, but her career as a soprano didn't begin until the age of sixteen, when she appeared as the narrator in a school production of Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. It was there that she was talent spotted, awarded a three year sponsorship for musical tuition from Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Trust and her amazing journey really began.
Denise's dreams finally came true when she was awarded a place at the Royal Northern College of Music to study for a degree in Opera, but just as she was due to start the course she realised that she was pregnant with her first child Becky.
In typical fashion, Denise was determined that being a mother would not stop her from developing as a singer, and so, after a short break while Becky was a baby she returned to her studying with support from the Rotary Club. "Those years were a juggling act" she said, "but I just enjoyed my singing without the drinking and the late nights that the other students were enjoying". In 1993, Denise finally became an Associate of the Royal College of Music. She went on to have two more children while earning a living through vocal coaching and teaching music theory.
In 2001, a friend suggested that she apply for the English National Opera / Channel 4 reality TV programme Operatunity, which was searching to find for a new young opera star. "I didn't want to enter the competition", I thought it would be very elitist, I thought I was too old and that I had the wrong background, but he nagged and nagged at me - and thank goodness he did."Winning Operatunity (along with fellow soprano Jane Gilchrist) has made Denise a household name and brought many exciting opportunities with it. Ever since then she has enjoyed a diary packed with concerts, recordings and other professional engagements. She has performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace (for members of the royal family, including the Queen) and with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic, The BBC Concert Orchestra, the London Handel Players, and the RLPO, to mention a few. She has taken part in events as diverse as BBC Proms In The Park, Songs of Praise, Friday Night Is Music Night and in 2004, she reunited with the English National Opera in a special oratorio For The Public Good, in a role written specifically for her.
The CD Operatunity Winners on EMI Classics, was a best seller in Britain and Northern Europe, gaining a silver disc, staying in the Classic FM top ten for 16 weeks and remaining at the number one position in the core Classical Chart for five months. It was also nominated for a BRIT award. Denise Leigh's début solo CD Pie Jesu is also available on EMI.
Her passion for oratorio and early music has also been flourishing, and she continues to work as a soloist with choral societies, and to give recitals throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Click here for future performances.In 2004 Denise completed a massive thirty three date UK tour, A Night At The Opera, along with Jane Gilchrist and special guests - tenor Alan Oke, baritone Wyn Pen Carreg and the Schomberg String Quartet. She repeated a UK tour at the beginning of 2007, when she took a concert called Mainly Mozart, (just Denise, a baritone, and a piano) out onto the road.
Denise has enjoyed performing at the "battle proms" series of summer outdoor concerts, held at stately homes across the south of England and, to date, has performed at these for the last 6 seasons.
Exciting and rewarding experiences have also come from her varied and fascinating charity work. She is a former patron of the local Douglas Macmillan hospice and Uniaid, which supports students from low-income backgrounds through university.
She also enjoys her work as a patron for the Music of Life Foundation, a charity aiming to integrate disabled musicians into mainstream performance and has worked tirelessly as a cultural ambassador for the 2012 London olympic bid, as well as being an honorary ambassador for RNIB.
Denise has visited Dubai twice in aid of a charity called Foresight, who work in the UAE raising awareness of the eye condition retinitis Pigmentosa, which she suffers from. In turn this has led to concerts for the British retinitis Pigmentosa Society in Newbury and more recently at Warwick Arts Centre with the British Police Symphony Orchestra.Denise has also made many radio appearances: winning Celebrity Counterpoint in 2006; as the subject of a programme in the series No Triumph No Tragedy; regularly contributes to In Touch; and is in demand as a studio guest throughout the UK, speaking on many aspects of being a musician, being disabled, or just talking for the love of it sometimes.
In January 2006, Denise started a musical collaboration with the UK national champion accordionist, and now her husband, Stefan Andrusyschyn, and the pair now have plans for a recording in the near future, and hope to make it a showcase for their work in early music.
In 2008 Denise was invited to Beijing, to sing as part of the Olympic Celebrations, in a concert called the Samsung Marriage of Excellence, which was filmed and later broadcast all over the world.
She was honoured to be invited to Channel 4's 25 years celebrations at the Barbican, where she sang alongside finalists from Operatunity's sister programme, Musicality, accompanied by Gareth Valentine; and along with judges from both programmes, fielded questions from the audience.
Denise was thrilled to be given an honorary doctorate by Staffordshire University, in recognition of her services to the arts.In February 2010 Denise was invited to take part in Gok Wan's "How to Look Good Naked" in a special mini series which looked at women with disabilities and their body image. The episode showed that it is possible for a blind woman to choose her own clothes, and Denise took the film crew shopping for a concert outfit, and was then filmed in concert wearing the dress.
Highlights of this year have so far included a performance of the Verdi Requiem with the Leicester Symphony Orchestra at the De Montfort Hall, a recital at the Duke of Westminster's Chester Residence, a recital for the treasury music society at 11 Downing street, and a concert given for Heywards Heath music society.
Click here for future performances.
Denise and Stefan will also be performing at Channel 4's Cultural Diversity awards ceremony, hosted by Gok Wan, and held at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, in November 2010.
In 2011, Denise will return once more to the battle Proms summer concert series.
©2010 Denise Leigh