About this Artist
Praised by Opera News as a “gleaming soprano” and the Wall Street Journal as “piercingly lovely,” soprano Leela Subramaniam has sung with some of the world’s most prestigious houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Gärtnerplatz Theater, Theater Basel, Irish National Opera, LA Opera, and the Carnegie Hall stage. Passionate about new music, Leela has performed in five world premieres, two of which have been by women of color.
Most recently Ms. Subramaniam was seen reprising the role of Annu in Thumbprint by Kamala Sankaram with Portland Opera, Turan in Threshold of Brightness by Iranian composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh with Beth Morrison Projects at National Sawdust, and the title role in Kamala Sankaram’s Miranda with Tri-Cities Opera and the Contemporaneous ensemble. Upcoming she will be performing the work of Kay Rhie at UCLA’s faculty recital and in her new opera Quake. With the LA Philharmonic, Ms. Subramaniam covered the roles of Dame Shirley and Josefa Segovia in John Adam’s Girls of the Golden West and Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio with Deaf West Theater.
Her past performed roles include the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) and Thaïs (Massenet), Pamina, Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring/Britten), and Angelica (Orlando Paladino/ Haydn). She was a 1st prize winner of the Joan Taub Ades Competition, as well as a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Tenor Viñas Competition, Giulio Gari Foundation, and Zinka Milanov Competition. As a young artist, she was a member of the Bavarian State Opera Studio, attended the Chautauqua Institution, and was Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theater of St. Louis. A native of Los Angeles, Miss Subramaniam received her M.M. and Professional Studies Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music and her B.A. from the University of California-Los Angeles.