Biography
Kim Leeds is a co-founder and the director of Filigree, a New England–based vocal ensemble committed to adventurous programming and captivating story telling through the art of improvised ornamentation and rhetorical expression. Through Filigree, she has commissioned new compositions and crafted performances designed to challenge, inspire, and move audiences on both musical and spiritual levels.
A vibrant presence in her hometown of Boston, Ms. Leeds has appeared as a soloist with Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers, Music at Marsh Chapel, Commonwealth Chorale, the Worcester Chorus and the Falmouth Chorale. When she isn’t singing, Ms. Leeds can be found tending her garden, experimenting in the kitchen, or hiking in landscapes that stretch from the Arctic Circle in Sweden to the remote Antarctic Province of Chile. She works part-time as the Development and Outreach Coordinator for Green Newton, a local sustainability nonprofit that allows her to champion environmental causes close to her heart. Dividing her time between music and ecological advocacy, she finds harmony in nurturing both art and the environment.
With her "vivid, deeply satisfying sound" (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “rich, smooth mezzo soprano” (St. Louis Post), Kim Leeds engages audiences in her exploration of life’s essence through music. Equally at home on the grand concert stage and in intimate chamber settings, Ms. Leeds captivates audiences through performances marked by emotional honesty, musical nuance, and an intuitive sense of style.
As a soloist, she has appeared with the GRAMMY® winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire, GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Gramophone award winning ensemble Blue Heron, Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Orchestra and Choir, the Oregon Bach Festival, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Bach Charlotte, Piffaro, Les Délices, Upper Valley Baroque, Bach Society of St. Louis, Chicago Master Singers, Cantata Collective, and the Handel Society of Dartmouth- among many others. Her artistry has been recognized through major fellowships and distinctions, including winning the Tafelmusik Vocal Competition, serving as a Virginia Best Adams Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival, and working with Philippe Herreweghe as a Britten–Pears Young Artist. She was a semifinalist in the 2022 Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition.
New to the operatic stage, Ms. Leeds has embraced a vivid range of dramatis personae in recent seasons. She has portrayed Penelope, the steadfast and resolute wife of Ulysses, in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse with The Art of the Early Keyboard; Catherina, the devout young woman tortured to death for her faith, in Tosi’s Il martirio di S. Catherina; and Nutrice, the loyal nursemaid and accomplice to the seductive murderess Giuditta, in Marcello’s La Giuditta with the Academy of Sacred Drama.
As a chamber artist, Ms. Leeds is sought after for her excellent musicianship, stylistic versatility, and expressive range, which have led to engagements with world-renowned ensembles including The Crossing, Clarion Choir, Seraphic Fire, Handel and Haydn Society, Musica Sacra, Oregon Bach Festival, and Ensemble Altera. Internationally, she has toured with the Weimar Bach Academy under the tutelage of Helmut Rilling, and the Junges Stuttgart Bach Ensemble under Hans-Christoph Rademann. She has contributed to several recordings, including True Concord’s GRAMMY-nominated album Dreams of the Fallen and Blue Heron’s Gramophone shortlisted album “Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs” vol 2.