About Léa
Native of San Francisco, California, soprano Léa Nayak leans on her multilingual and multicultural upbringing to bridge communities together through the beauty of classical voice.
Léa earned her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she also completed her undergraduate studies. Her recent debut of the title role in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias was described as “smart and sassy,” with “a charming presence” and “perfect comic timing” (Janelle Gelfand, janellesnotes.) Other leading roles from her time at CCM include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Belinda in Dido & Aeneas, Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld, and Lucinda in Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters.
In the summer of 2026 Léa looks forward to debuting the role of Frasquita in Carmen with the Lakes Area Music Festival, where she will be serving as a Resident Artist. She is also delighted to join the roster of Resident Artists at Pittsburgh Opera this fall, where she will be seen onstage performing as The Page in Rigoletto, Amor in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice (Berlioz edition), the eponymous role in Handel’s Partenope, and Madam Alice Tairik in the world premiere of Working for the Macbeths by Johanny Navarro and Marcus Yi.
In 2025 Léa returned to the Des Moines Metro Opera as a Frank R. Brownell Apprentice Artist, where she covered the role of Bystrouška (the Vixen) and performed as Spajko (the Jay) in The Cunning Little Vixen, also presenting scenes from L’elisir d’amore, Les pêcheurs de perles, L’incoronazione di Poppea and Don Pasquale. In her 2024 season at DMMO Léa had the privilege of covering Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande, Eine Sklave in Salome, and performing scenes from Rigoletto, Der Rosenkavalier, Of Mice & Men, and La rondine. Léa is also an alumna of the 2024 Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy. Other noteworthy roles of hers include Le feu in Chautauqua Opera Conservatory's production of L'enfant et les sortilèges in 2023.
Léa’s ambition has earned her accolades in highly competitive pools: She was named a semifinalist in the 2026 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, a second-time Kentucky District Winner for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, a 2nd prize winner of the National Opera Association Carolyn Bailey Argento Vocal Competition, a John F. Alexander Memorial Awardee at the CCM Corbett Competition, a winner of the Matinee Musicale Nancy F. Walker Scholarship Vocal Competition, and a two-time Schmidt Undergraduate Vocal Competition winner.
Outside of opera, Léa also dedicates herself to premiering new works and bringing underrepresented voices into the classical canon. Her collaboration with composer Aadhivan Ramkumar setting poems of Rabindranath Tagore earned a first prize and an audience choice prize from the Cincinnati Song Initiative Songslam in 2023. Léa is also a three-time participant in the student-lead A Celebration of Women in Music fundraiser recital for Women Helping Women, a Cincinnati women’s crisis center. Léa was also named an Albert C. Yates Fellow at the University of Cincinnati, a scholarship she was nominated for by the CCM Voice faculty with the goal of supporting underrepresented minoritized groups with high potential for academic success in graduate programs.
