Soprano LEAH CROCETTO is a second-year Adler fellow with San Francisco Opera. Already recognized for the beauty of her singing, Ms. Crocetto was a 2010 Grand Finals Winner in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, 1st Place Winner, People’s Choice and the Spanish Prize winner at the José Iturbi International Music Competition, and winner of the Bel Canto Foundation competition. In the summer of 2011, Ms. Crocetto will represent the United States at the Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition. Of her performance for San Francisco Opera’s Opera in the Park, the San Francisco Chronicle said, “…outlandishly gifted soprano Leah Crocetto, who won the crowd over with a formidable account of “Regnava nel silenzio” then sealed the deal with a limpid “O mio babbino caro.”

Ms. Crocetto’s 2010 – 2011 season includes her European debut as Leonora in Il trovatore with Opéra National de Bordeaux. Her season with San Francisco Opera includes a performance with Nicola Luisotti in the company’s Opera in the Park and productions of Aida and Cyrano de Bergerac. She will be heard in performances of Verdi’s Requiem with Columbus Symphony and Albany Symphony, and will be featured by the Adrian Symphony in a concert of opera and musical theatre. In June 2011, Leah Crocetto will be the United States representative at the 15th BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

Ms. Crocetto began the 2009 – 2010 with San Francisco Opera’s production of Il Trittico in Suor Angelica and covered the roles of Leonora in Il trovatore and Desdemona in Otello. She joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel for performances of Verdi’s Requiem; a piece she prepared with Riccardo Muti for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Also, she was featured in a Schwabacher Recital for the San Francisco Opera. Further concert performances included Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with San Francisco Opera and Nicola Luisotti, and Handel’s Messiah in Anchorage.

Ms. Crocetto holds degrees from Siena Heights University in acting performance and Moody Bible Institute in vocal studies. She is a former member of the Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artists Program where she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro and in La Rondine. She was a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, where she performed scenes from Manon, Don Pasquale and sang the roles of two Verdi heroines, Luisa Miller and Leonora in Il trovatore on the Grand Finale Concert. Of this performance, San Francisco Chronicle said Crocetto has a “powerful Verdi voice and formidable precision technique, and intensity that amplifies an already huge voice, and an innate, irresistible musicality.” San Francisco Classical voice said, “In thirty years of exciting discoveries, listening to each group of Merolini for the first time, I have never experienced a singer as complete and awesome as Crocetto.”