Cecilia Leitner (Soprano)

Born: New Mexico, USA

The American soprano, Cecilia Leitner, grew up in New Mexico in a musical family and a trilingual home of German, Spanish, and English. She received her bachelor’s degree in music from the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied voice with Glenn Siebert. She is attending graduate school at Yale University, studying voice with James Taylor (MM, 2009). She is a soloist, member of "Voxtet", a group of eight soloists with the Schola Cantorum of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Her other teachers have been Margaret Croce in Santa Fe, NM, and Marilyn Tyler at the University of New Mexico. She also sang in master-classes with Ruth Golden and Virginia Zeani.

Cecilia Leitner has performed Cecilia Leitner has performed in concerts, chamber music recitals, summer festivals, Baroque festivals, opera choruses, and in operettas in New Mexico and North Carolina., including in Chapel Hill, Ashville, Winston-Salem and other cities. She was a soloist at the Illuminations Festival of 2005 in Manteo, North Carolina, where she performed Baroque music, American art songs, and a varied program with her sister Genevieve Leitner accompanying her on guitar. Cecilia was an “emerging artist” at the Magnolia Baroque Festival in Winston Salem, NC, where she sang solos and duos accompanied by lute and theorbo. In New Mexico, she concertizes in the Santa Fe area singing in chamber music concerts, ensembles, and as a soloist.

Cecilia Leitner has sung the music of Reverend Father José María Blanch since she was a child, and feels honored to record his music: in 2006 she recorded “Canticos de Fe,” sacred music by him, and she is now working on the second CD of his music. She would like to pursue an international career performingin early music festivals, concerts, competitions, andoperas. Her other interests include early Spanish andLatin American music, flamenco dancing, bodyworkfor singers, and music therapy..

Source: Leitner Music Enterprises Website; Prism Yale University Website (September 2007)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (September 2009)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Bach Aria Group

Soprano

Selections from BWV 245

Simon Carrington

Soprano

BWV 243

Links to other Sites

Ellen Chavez de Leitner - Leitner Music Enterprises: Bio

Prismyale institute of sacred music [PDF, Sep 2007]