Susan Legg
Head of Voice / Voice Tutor
About
Since winning the National Mozart Singing Competition, Susan has enjoyed a flourishing career that has taken her to major concert venues throughout the world. Specialising in contemporary song, lieder and chanson, she is regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and has recorded for Norwegian Radio. The legendary mezzo soprano Christa Ludwig described Susan’s lyric mezzo as ‘a beautiful voice with a fine coloratura’. Susan studied singing with Margaret Kingsley at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio and piano with Clifford Benson and Phyllis Sellick OBE.
Much in demand as a recitalist, Susan has given concerts at the Wigmore Hall, a Purcell Room song recital and piano recital, a performance of Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist) and a vocal recital at St. John, Smith’s Square and opera galas at St. James’s Palace as well as major venues in Moscow, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Operatic engagements have taken her to Glyndebourne, Bayreuth, Wexford and Aldeburgh Festivals and the Walton Trust, Ischia. In oratorio, Susan has performed all of Elgar’s works, the Bach Passions, Verdi and Mozart Requiems and given performances of Handel’s Messiah in Mexico. She has performed with the BBC Singers and regularly records soundtracks for Film, TV and Video Games.
Susan’s awards include: First prize in the National Mozart Singing Competition; Richard Tauber Schubert Society Prize; Tillett Trust’s Young Artists’ Platform; finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and Belvedere International Singing Competition, Vienna and British representative in the Queen Sonja International Music Competition, Norway.
In a celebrated duo with award-winning pianist Ann Martin-Davis, Susan recorded an acclaimed CD of Lutosławski chamber music for the ASV Label as well as a disc of songs by the lost composer Peter Pope for Nimbus Alliance.
For cinema and television, Susan recorded and co-composed the soundtrack with composer Stephen Baysted for celebrated director Phil Grabsky’s feature film: The Impressionists and the man who made them (2015) (‘dazzling’ Sydney Arts Guide) which has been screened in cinemas worldwide and broadcast on ITV. Working with composer Stephen Baysted she was vocal and piano soloist on Phil Grabsky’s Renoir: Revered and Reviled (2016) and I, Claude Monet (2017) and The Young Picasso (2019).
For video games, Susan was solo vocalist and pianist on the soundtracks to the multiple award-winning and number one best selling AAA franchise: Project Cars (2015) and Project Cars 2 (2017). She was also featured vocalist on Atari’s Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends and Electronic Arts Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed. Recently Susan has performed as vocal soloist on Project Cars 3 and Fast and Furious Crossroads.
Concerts and engagements include a CD recording for Divine Art Label of Cilia Petridou’s new choral work Byzantine Doxology (mezzo soloist); world premiere of Nicholas Smith’s Chinese choral work Love, Friendship & Longing in Cadogan Hall; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, London; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Colyer-Ferguson Hall, University of Kent; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; Elgar’s The Kingdom in The Oratory School, Oxon; Mozart’s Requiem in Cadogan Hall (November 2021) .
Last year Susan featured on Season 7 of ITV’s Endeavour as the opera diva.
During the first Lockdown Susan wrote the song “Hold on Tight” recorded with Guy Fletcher from Dire Straits to raise money for NHS Charities Together.
‘A lustrous mezzo soprano’ – The Sunday Times
Research Output
Shows/Exhibitions
Legg, S. (2011) Mahler: Das Klagende Lied. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Legg, S. (2011) Recital of Peter Pope songs. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Legg, S. (2011) Recital of Peter Pope songs. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Legg, S. (2011) Recital of Peter Pope songs. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Compositions
Baysted, S. and Legg, S. (2019) Young Picasso. [Compositions]
Baysted, S. and Legg, S. (2017) I, Claude Monet. [Compositions]
Baysted, S. and Legg, S. (2016) Renoir: revered and reviled. [Compositions]
Performances
Legg, S. (2011) Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed. [Performances]
Audio
Legg, S. and Martin-Davis, A. (2010) Heaven-Haven: The Songs of Peter Pope. [Audio]