Lesley Anne is a conductor, répétiteur, arranger and vocal coach. She studied at Trinity College of Music, The Guildhall School of Music and The National Opera Studio. She was répétiteur for Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, ENO, Opera North, ETO, ROH, Grange Park Opera, Il Teatro Massimo di Palermo and De Nederlandse Opera.
She conducted for Opera Holland Park (Madama Butterfly, Barbiere di Siviglia) and Longborough (The Magic Flute, La Calisto). Since 2010, Lesley Anne has been MD of Barefoot Opera where she re-imagined opera scores including Carmen, L’elisir d’amore, La bohème, creating the distinctive instrumental combination now known as The Barefoot Band.
In 2019 Longborough commissioned Lesley Anne to arrange La Calisto which received critical acclaim, including a four-star review in The Times. In 2020, Lesley Anne was the MD for Lucy Mulgan’s Red and Dido and Aeneas in Durham before Covid-19 put paid to live music. Further performances in 2021 will hopefully include a double bill of Gluck and Mascagni and a new community opera project: Bloom Britannia by Orlando Gough.
During lockdown, Lesley Anne had time to create an exciting new version of Così fan tutte for her now infamous Barefoot Band which will be sure to challenge and delight Longborough audiences.