LeRoy Lehr, bass
At the time of his retirement from the Metropolitan Opera at the end of the 2009-10 season after 19 years as a soloist, LeRoy Lehr had sung 326 performances of supporting and character roles there, spanning a career of almost 60 years and encompassing every aspect of Classical singing.
Recipient of a Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation grant, and a founding member of the groundbreaking and innovative Center Opera (now Minnesota Opera), Mr. Lehr’s early career included new and improvisational opera with that group, as well as traditional operatic and orchestral work throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, and the U.K. — even Moscow, USSR in 1991 with a US State Dept. sponsored production at the Bolshoi Theater. LeRoy Lehr is familiar to live Metropolitan Opera broadcast audiences as Doctor Grenvil in La Traviata, Hans Schwartz in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, and the Jailer in Tosca, roles which he has repeated over many radio broadcast seasons, and numerous other characters on those memorable Saturday afternoons and on tour in Japan. He has appeared in several productions at New York City Opera, in regional houses across the U.S., and Festivals Aldeburgh (England), Bard, Blossom, Marlboro, Meadowbrook, OTSL (St. Louis), Summerfest, Lake George, Wildwood, Wolftrap and New Hampshire Music Festivals.
The spectrum of Mr. Lehr’s repertoire ranges from Mozart and Monteverdi to Britten and Berlioz. He has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s major orchestras and conductors, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Gothenberg Symphony, the National Symphony, the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Minnesota; and under the batons of Alcantara, Armiliato, Badea, Brunelle, Buchhalter, de Burgos, Colaneri, Conlon, Coppola, de Billy, de Waart, vonDohnanyi, Dorati, Ferden, Fiore, Gergiev, Guadagno, Henze, Illick, Inouye, Jarvi, Levine, Luisi, Manahan, Marin, Nagano, Noseda, Oren, Osgood, Otvos, Ozawa, Rizzi, Rostropovich, Rudel, Runnicles, Salemno, Shaw, Skrowaczewski, Slatkin, and Summers.
Recordings on which LeRoy Lehr is featured include the Virgin Classics complete CD recording of Copland’s The Tender Land, the VAI DVD of PDQ Bach’s Abduction of Figaro, and, on CRI CD, Argento’s Jonah and the Whale. Stephen Paulus’ So Hallow’d is the Time, Gerald Finzi’s In Terra Pax and Rutter Christmas Carols are on the Pro Arte label with LeRoy Lehr as soloist. He is Pa on the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival world premiere Legato Classics recording of Patience and Sarah by Paula Kimper and Wende Persons. He also appears on the televised broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera of Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg (available on Deutschegrammophon DVD), and The Queen of Spades, (not yet commercially available).
LeRoy now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Stage Director Veronica Reed.
More detail and photos are available at the website: www.leroylehr.com.
