Leslie Garrett
| Lesley Garrett CBE |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
10 April 1955 Thorne, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England |
| Genres | Classical, classical-crossover |
| Occupation(s) | Singer–songwriter, musician, broadcaster, media personality |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Labels |
Decca Universal Classics and Jazz Universal Music International |
| Website | Official site |
Lesley Garrett, CBE (born 10 April 1955) is an English soprano singer, musician, broadcaster and media personality. She is noted for being at home in opera and "crossover music".
Garrett was born in the town of Thorne, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire into a musical family. She attended Thorne Fieldside Infant and Junior Schools and Thorne Grammar School, where she performed in school plays and musicals and passed 10 O-levels and an A-level in music. As she grew up she inherited her family's love of music. Her grandfather Colin Wall was a classical pianist; her father Derek worked as a railway signalman and then as a schoolteacher at Hatfield Woodhouse Primary School, eventually going on to become a headmaster. They lived nearby just south of the village; her mother Margaret (née Wall) was a talented singing seamstress and became the school secretary at Lesley's primary school. She has two sisters, Jill and Kay, one step-sister, Louise, and two step-brothers, Robert and Nicholas. When Lesley was 17 she washed dishes at the officers' mess at nearby RAF Lindholme as a summer job. While a student at the Royal Academy of Music she worked as a life model, something of which she is still proud.
Garrett has had an extensive music career. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, she won the Decca Prize of the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 1979, thereby launching her career. Her professional debut, in 1979, was as Amor in Orontea at the music festival in Batignano. She subsequently sang, in 1980, Alice in Le comte Ory at the London Coliseum and Dorinda in Orlando at the Wexford Festival, in 1981, also at Wexford, the title role in Zaide, in 1982 Sophie in Werther with Opera North and in 1984 Damigella in L'incoronazione di Poppea at Glyndebourne. From 1984, as principal soprano at English National Opera, she became well known for her performances in productions of the operas Serse, Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte and Die Fledermaus.
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