Sylvia Leith | Photo: Jackson Colver

Sylvia Leith

Sylvia Leith, mezzo-soprano, is a soloist and consort singer. She has appeared as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, the Oregon Bach Festival, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, American Classical Orchestra, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Riverside Choral Society, Cantata Collective, and Baroque Music Montana, among others. Known primarily for her performances of the high baroque works of Bach and Handel, she is equally at home singing repertoire of the Romantic era including Mahler, Elgar, and Brahms, as well as 20th-century and newly composed works. Solo highlights of her 2024–25 season include Handel’s Messiah with the Winston-Salem and Lancaster Symphonies, Mozart’s Requiem with Washington Bach Consort and Princeton Chapel Choir, and Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus. 

Equally dedicated to ensemble singing, Sylvia’s choral credits include Ensemble Altera, Seraphic Fire, TENET, Lorelei, Bach Collegium San Diego, Ekmeles, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, the Crossing, Skylark, and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. In 2020 she co-founded the Polyphonists, a versatile vocal quartet, alongside her husband, bass-baritone Edmund Milly. 

Her operatic roles include Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring. 

Sylvia won first prize in the 2024 Bethlehem Bach Aria Competition, and was a 2024 Virginia Best Adams vocal fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival. She holds a bachelor’s degree in German from Yale and a master’s in Voice from Boston University.

www.sylvialeith.com