Biography

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Hailed as "magnetic" and a "powerhouse" (Boston Music Intelligencer), mezzo soprano Leslie Jacobson Kaye is equally at home on the opera and recital stages. 

Recent performances include the Alto Soloist in Bach’s Cantata BWV 80 with the Fine Arts Chorale, and Mrs. Segstrom in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. Leslie’s Mixtape Recital Series Competition win and performance included the world premiere of Oliver Caplan’s Woman in an Ermine Collar, and followed performances as Nursing Sister in Giacomo Puccini's Suor Angelica, Madeline Mitchell in Jake Heggie's Three Decembers and participation in the Vianden International Music Festival.  

Her warm vocal timbre and command of the stage have opened the door to a wide variety of operatic roles over the years ranging from Hansel in Hansel & Gretel and Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, to Nicklaus in Tales of Hoffman, Florence Pike in Albert Herring and the Mother in Hansel & Gretel.

Early in her career Leslie performed as a participant in the Chautauqua Vocal Institute, as an apprentice artist with Lyric Opera Cleveland, and extensively throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic region with companies such as Queens Opera, Berks Grand Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Delaware Valley Opera Company, Mozart & Friends, Longwood Opera and Symphony Pro Musica. 

Leslie's recital work focuses on bringing attention to new and rarely performed works alongside the great American storytellers, French Chanson, German Lieder, Yiddish, Italian and Spanish repertoire.

An alum of the New England Conservatory and Boston Conservatory opera programs, Leslie has also made an impact as a senior fundraising professional for arts institutions such as The Curtis Institute of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She was honored by the Boston Business Journal in 2014 as a WomenUp - Women of Influence and received the Cole Porter Arts Recognition Award in 2021 from Worcester Academy for her impact on the arts.