Leah Hollingshead is a coloratura soprano who particularly enjoys collaborating with living composers on new music that doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre. Most recently, she appeared as the Littler Daughter in Missy Mazzoli’s opera Proving Up. Leah has also been fortunate enough to premiere several roles, including Maureen in Jack Coen's Folk and Flora and Miriam Kor in Thomas Yee’s opera Eva and the Angel of Death, which was recently selected as a national finalist for the American Prize for Composition in Opera.

She has also originated vocalist lines for several pieces of chamber music. Some of Leah’s favorite pieces of this genre are Infinity Songs by Sophie Mathieu, Dana Lyn’s chamber operetta A Point on a Slow Curve, and Nathan Nokes’ doctoral thesis The Sound of Paper Words (a reflection on navigating the school system with undiagnosed dyslexia).

Leah received her Bachelor of Music from Vanderbilt University, where she served as President of the Blair School of Music Student Council. She recently earned her Master’s in Vocal Pedagogy at UT Austin’s Butler School of Music, where she studied with mezzo-soprano Jill Grove.

Leah performs regularly with several ensembles and new music collectives in Austin and South Texas, including Conspirare Symphonic Choir, the Valley Symphony Orchestra, Density512, Tinsel Singers, Church of the Friendly Ghost, Austin Cantorum, and One Ounce Opera. Leah is based in Brownsville, Texas, where she coordinates operations for UT Rio Grande Valley’s Performing Arts Center and maintains a busy private studio.