Elizabeth Llewellyn & Simon Lepper
Biography Elizabeth Llewellyn & Simon Lepper
Elizabeth Llewellyn
Known for her vivid portrayals and her full, distinctive voice, since making her debut as Mimi/La Boheme in 2010 at the English National Opera, Elizabeth has established herself internationally as a dramatic and vocal artist of distinction.
Specialising in the Italian repertoire, her roles have included Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Magda/La Rondine, Giorgetta/Il Tabarro, Tosca, Suor Angelica, Aida, Luisa Miller, and Amelia/Simon Boccanegra for which Elizabeth was nominated for “Singer of the Year 2013” in OpernWelt. In 2019, Elizabeth made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in the title role of Bess in Porgy and Bess.
Elizabeth also is a sought-after concert artist. Recent appearances have included debut recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh. Orchestral performances include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Verdi’s Requiem, Elgar’s Caractacus and Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with Martyn Brabbins (both recorded for Hyperion), and a live performance of Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder on BBC Radio 3 with the BBCSO and Donald Runnicles.
Future plans include a series of recitals at the Wigmore Hall, centred around the songs of Coleridge-Taylor, her French debut as Tosca with Opera Dijon, and her role debuts as three Verdi heroines: Desdemona/Otello, Alice Ford/Falstaff, and Leonora/Il Trovatore.
Simon Lepper
read music at King’s College, Cambridge before studying collaborative piano with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music in London and later with Ruben Lifschitz at the Académie de Royaumont, France.
Specialising in song accompaniment, he has regularly collaborated with singers including Benjamin Appl, Ilker Arcayürek, Christiane Karg, Karen Cargill, Stéphane Degout, Angelika Kirchschlager, Sally Matthews and Mark Padmore. He performs extensively in venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, the festivals of Verbier, Ravinia and Edinburgh, and the Opera houses of Frankfurt, Geneva, Bordeaux and La Monnaie. In his home country, he is often heard on BBC Radio 3 and regularly performs at the Wigmore Hall where he has also curated a series on the songs of Joseph Marx.
He is a committed teacher and is currently professor of collaborative piano and a vocal repertoire coach at the Royal College of Music, London where he also co-ordinates the collaborative piano course. Since 2003 he has been the official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
His discography includes a live recital disc with Stéphane Degout and a disc of Ballades, Mahler songs and a French Song recital with Karen Cargill, 2 volumes of Debussy Songs and a Strauss disc with Gillian Keith, the complete songs of Jonathan Dove with Kitty Whately, Schubert Songs with Ilker Arcayürek and a recital disc with Dame Felicity Palmer.
