BIOGRAPHY

Sylvia Leith, mezzo-soprano, is a soloist and consort singer. She has appeared as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Washington Bach Consort, Oregon Bach Festival, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, American Classical Orchestra, Bach Akademie Charlotte, New York Choral Society, 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. Upcoming solo engagements in 2025 include Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Washington Bach Consort, Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus, Bach’s Magnificat at the Washington National Cathedral, and Handel’s Messiah with Tempesta di Mare.

Equally dedicated to ensemble singing, Sylvia’s choral credits include Ensemble Altera, Seraphic Fire, Skylark, True Concord, TENET, Lorelei, Bach Collegium San Diego, Ekmeles, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, the Crossing, 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.

See repertoire list below.