A native of Philadelphia, soprano Leah Hawkins is the 2024 recipient of the Beverly Sills Artist Award from the Metropolitan Opera. She begins the 2024-25 season in recital at the Park Avenue Armory, followed by several recital and concert appearances in New York City. Later this season she debuts with the San Francisco Symphony in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, returns to Arizona Opera for her role debut as Aida, and returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. She began the 2023-24 season in Verdi's Messa da Requiem and X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the Metropolitan Opera, reprised her roles in X at Seattle Opera, and debuted as Giorgetta in Il Tabarro at Dutch National Opera. She had a series of exciting role and house debuts in the 2022-23 season, beginning the season as the Foreign Princess in Rusalka at Pittsburgh Opera, followed by Ariadne auf Naxos at Arizona Opera, Tosca at Opera Memphis and Santa Fe Opera, and Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera. The winner of the 2023 Marian Anderson Award and a 2022 Richard Tucker Career Grant, she recently presented a recital at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, sang Beethoven's 9th Symphony and La bohème with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Verdi's Messa da Requiem with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel.