A Carmen Christmas | Isabel Leonard

Gabriela Montero at Prager | Season 5, Concert 5

Sat, Dec 19 | Prager Family Center for the Arts
Isabel Leonard | mezzosoprano | USA
Bryan Wagorn | piano |

Canada Three-time GRAMMY®-winning star of the Metropolitan Opera's Carmen,
Isabel Leonard brings arias, songs and Christmas cheer.

"Effortlessly seductive..." Classical Review

Time & Place
Dec 19, 2026, 7:30 PM | doors open at 7 PM
Prager Family Center for the Arts, 17 S Washington St, Easton, MD 21601, USA

About the Artists
Isabel Leonard

A native New Yorker and graduate of The Juilliard School, three-time Grammy Award-winning artist Isabel Leonard has built a career of rare breadth, praised by the New York Classical Review as "so compelling that she is effortlessly seductive" — a reputation earned not only on the opera stage but in the concert hall, on film, and on screens worldwide.

The 2026–2027 season finds Ms. Leonard at the center of an exceptionally wide-ranging series of operatic and orchestral engagements spanning Europe and North America. She makes her house debut at Teatro Real in Madrid as Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti in Damiano Michieletto's production. She sings her role debut as Julie in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat with Houston Grand Opera, in Francesca Zambello's production conducted by Music Director Emeritus Patrick Summers. She is also featured as one of the star soloists in the Metropolitan Opera's Diamond Jubilee Gala — 60 Years at Lincoln Center — conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Julian Crouch, featuring fully staged performances from more than thirty operas.

Orchestral highlights include opening the Houston Symphony's season in a gala evening of Great American Songbook repertoire with Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke, a gala appearance with the San Diego Symphony conducted by Music Director Rafael Payare, Ravel's Shéhérazade and Debussy's Le jet d'eau with the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Fabien Gabel, and L'enfant et les sortilèges with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Stéphane Denève and in a staged production with digital projections with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, also conducted by Denève. She also appears in a private gala concert in Monte Carlo with soprano Nadine Sierra, and is featured in an all-star Christmas gala at Carnegie Hall curated by Eugene Wintour.

The 2025–2026 season was one of Ms. Leonard's richest and most varied. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera in two prominent productions: the title role in Bizet's Carmen, conducted by Fabien Gabel, and the leading role of Frida in the company premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank's El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, directed by Deborah Colker and conducted by Nézet-Séguin, broadcast as part of the Met's Live in HD series. She also appeared in the title role of Carmen at the Wiener Opernsommer, in the open-air Opera Arena at the Heumarkt in Vienna, conducted by Joji Hattori. She returned to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Angelina in La Cenerentola and sang the title role in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges with the San Diego Symphony under Music Director Rafael Payare in a semi-staged production directed by Gerard McBurney. She joined Le Cercle de l'Harmonie and conductor Jérémie Rhorer for a tour of France celebrating the music of Rossini.

The season also saw Ms. Leonard designated a Perspectives Artist at Carnegie Hall, where she presented a series of concerts throughout the season, including a recital with pianist John Arida in Stern Auditorium, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with The Met Orchestra conducted by Nézet-Séguin, and participation in the prestigious 50th Anniversary of the Concert of the Century Gala, also conducted by Nézet-Séguin. The season's Perspectives series closed with a Spanish Song and Dance Recital with vocalist Ismael Fernández and dancer Sonia Olla. Additional engagements included a residency with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra comprising a recital with John Arida, an orchestral performance of Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and a concert of Gershwin and American music with the Youth Orchestra; and further residencies and recitals at Washington University in St. Louis, Ithaca College, and Montclair State University.