Jessica Leary

Jessica Leary read music at Edinburgh University and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music before completing her training as a Robertson Trust Scholar on the Alexander Gibson Opera Course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Jessica currently combines freelance work as a professional soprano and music educator with part-time doctoral study at the RCS, where she is the grateful recipient of a Carnegie Trust PhD Scholarship.

As a professional freelance soprano, Jessica performs regularly with companies across the UK and abroad with companies including Scottish Opera, Grange Park Opera, Iford Arts, Mahogany Opera, Dunedin Consort, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and OAE Choir, and venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings, and BBC London Proms. Between 2012-2016, Jessica was a member of the prestigious Bayreuth Festival Chorus. She features on recordings with Delphian Records and Warner Classics and has appeared on broadcasts for BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 3.

Alongside her work as a freelance singer, Jessica is a visiting tutor at St Andrews University and an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). Passionate about music education, she works regularly on outreach and education projects with companies including Scottish Opera, Dunedin Consort, Edinburgh International Festival and McOpera. Her doctoral research builds directly upon her experiences as a practitioner, investigating the technical, artistic and professional implications of outreach and education work from the perspective of the professional singer. She is hugely grateful to the Carnegie Trust and to Scottish Opera, Edinburgh International Festival and Dunedin Consort for their partnership with the project.