About Léa
Native of San Francisco, CA, soprano Léa Nayak leans on her multilingual and multicultural upbringing to bridge communities together through the beauty of classical voice.
Léa is completing her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she also completed her undergraduate studies. During her time at CCM she performed numerous leading roles, including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Belinda in Dido & Aeneas, Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld, and most recently Lucinda in Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters. Other noteworthy roles of hers include Le feu in Chautauqua Opera Conservatory's production of L'enfant et les sortilèges.
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.
Léa’s ambition has earned her accolades in highly competitive pools: She was named 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 winner of the Matinee Musicale Nancy F. Walker Scholarship Vocal Competition, and a second-time Schmidt Undergraduate Vocal Competition winner.
Outside of opera, Léa is also dedicated 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. 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 is also a past member of the Hear Us Hear Them ensemble, and a participant in Hearts in Harmony: African-American Songs of Love and Justice. Léa is also honored to be Albert C. Yates Fellow at the University of Cincinnati.
