Sarah Leonard is one of Britain's most respected and versatile sopranos. She has a wide repertoire from baroque to contemporary and has appeared throughout the world in major concert halls, opera houses and festivals. She has premiered many works by leading composers including Harrison Birtwistle, Pascal Dusapin, Jonathan Harvey, Helmut Lachenmann, John Harle and Joe Cutler.
For many years Sarah toured as a guest soprano with The Hilliard Ensemble, singing and recording the music of Arvo Pärt. She sang with The Michael Nyman Band for over 20 years and featured on Peter Greenaway films The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, and Prospero’s Books and many Nyman CD’s. Sarah has also worked extensively with John Harle and is the voice in the title music of the long running TV series Silent Witness.
Sarah regularly gives song recitals with pianist Stephen Gutman. These have included recitals at the BMIC’s Cutting Edge series, Benslow Music’s Summer Festivals, The Clothworkers Centenary Hall and The London Song Festival. Alongside her performing career Sarah teaches singing in London and holds popular singing courses with Stephen Gutman, at Benslow Music and Jackdaws in Somerset. In January 2013 Hull University awarded Sarah Leonard a Degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa for her services to music.
British pianist Stephen Gutman has performed in the Royal Festival Hall, the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Weill Hall in New York, Ueno Bunka Keikan in Tokyo, and throughout Europe. Born and based in London, he studied at the Royal College of Music and with Vlado Perlemuter in Paris, and was awarded first prizes in the Brant Competition and the British Contemporary Piano Competition. His friendship with the pianist Michal Hambourg in the 1990’s was an important influence on his work.
Passionately committed to the music of our time, Stephen has encouraged the creation of new work in a series of projects which have placed large-scale commissioning in the context of significant but possibly neglected repertoire. Julian Anderson, John Casken, Tansy Davies, Michael Finnissy, Simon Holt, Gabriel Jackson, Colin Matthews, Anthony Payne and John Woolrich are some of the many composers who have written for him.
Stephen’s enthusiasm for French keyboard music including the French Baroque led to his recent recording of the complete keyboard works of Rameau played on the modern piano for the Toccata label. There have been enthusiastic reviews in Fanfare, BBC Music Magazine (5 stars), the Gramophone and MusicWeb International who chose the final CD as their CD of the month. Other recordings are available on NMC and Avid Records, and his performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Deutsche Rundfunk and France Musique.
