UK soprano who is blind helps to support UAE's search for a cure

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About Denise Leigh
Born in Audley, Staffordshire, Denise Leigh began her career as a brass player, before gaining a Sainsbury's Gatesby Trust award to continue her studies. Awarded a place at the Royal Northern College of Music, she continues to work with Lillian Watson. She first came to wider prominence as a Winner of the English National Opera / Channel 4 TV programme Operatunity, which won the Prix Italia 2003, and led to an appearance as Gilda Rigoletto (shared with her Co-Winner Jane Gilchrist) at the London Coliseum. She has since returned to ENO for Orlando Gough's For the Public Good and other stage work has included Russell Barr's play The Super Naughty XXXmas Story at Wilton's Music Hall.

Denise Leigh has appeared with Clonter Opera as well as at the BBC Proms in the Park, Belfast Proms in the Park, Friday Night is Music Night and Songs of Praise. She undertook an extensive concert tour, A Night at the Opera, with Jane Gilchrist, Alan Oke and Wyn Pencarreg, and has also appeared on Counterpoint and presented In Touch for the BBC. Other engagements have taken her to the Royal Albert Hall for Classic fM live with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the Chester Summer Music Festival and the Three Choirs Festival, Hereford.

She sings regularly in concert, her recent engagements including the Brahms Requiem in St Albans Abbey, Messiah at the London Handel Festival, Samson with the Brook Street Band, Elijah with Keele Bach Choir, Mozart Requiem with Harrow Choral Society and a Gala Concert with the Ten Tors Orchestra. Current engagements include Brahms Requiem in Rochester Cathedral, Messiah with the OSJ at St John's, Smith Square, and the Nottingham Harmonic Society, the Utrecht Te Deum for the Ten Tors Orchestra, Mozart Mass in C Minor for Angmering Chorale, Choir 2000, Cambridge, and the Isle of Wight Cantata Choir, Mozart Requiem for the Galway Choral Association and Carmina Burana at The Mote Hall, Maidstone, and The Swan Theatre, High Wycombe, as well as a return visit to the Battle Proms and the Mostly Mozart Tour for Calibre Productions.

The CD Operatunity Winners on EMI Classics, was a best seller in Britain and Northern Europe, gaining a silver disc, staying in the Classic FM top ten for 16 weeks and remaining at the number one position in the core Classical Chart for five months. It was also nominated for a BRIT award. Denise Leigh's début solo CD Pie Jesu is also available on EMI.

" - with Leigh the brighter and more agile, ending on a wonderfully controlled trill..."
Operatunity Winners / EMI Classics / The Guardian

"The quality of her voice which makes it special is its ethereal clarity, which comes across well in the Bach and Handel..."
Pie Jesu / EMI Classics / Opera Today

"Hers is an amazing voice. It has power, it has a huge range, it is beautiful. Her technique is excellent: she's able to ornament her lines as need be. Trills, for instance, are not inaccurate warbles but spot-on notes."
Recital / Chester Summer Music Festival / Daily Post

"Soprano, Denise Leigh, winner of Channel 4's Operatunity in 2001, delighted the audience with a varied selection of arias by Handel, Puccini and Lehar. Denise has a polished technique, but few could fail to have been moved by the emotion in her performance, clearly coming straight from the heart."

A Musical Spectacular / Ten Tors Orchestra / Plymouth Evening Herald

About Foresight
Until recently untreatable, new progress in research means that cures for hereditary retinal diseases will be found. Our aim is to accelerate finding cures for retinal diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa. For some forms of retinal disease a cure will be found within 10 years and it is likely that children will be the first to benefit.

We also work in the community to improve the lives of people who are losing their sight in the U.A.E, such as providing a regular support group and mobility training.

Foresight is a U.A.E-based non-profit making organisation and a branch of Tamkeen. We are an associate member of Retina International (which coordinates major retinal research internationally).

Tamkeen (the Arabic word for enabling) is a non-profit organisation, initiated by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum for the training of visually impaired citizens of working age. This unique training centre provides professional training courses that aren't found anywhere else in the U.A.E. All courses including transport are free of charge.

Tamkeen's objective is to empower vision impaired U.A.E nationals and residents with practical, vocational skills to enable them to enter the modern workplace to become economic and socially independent citizens.

To contact Foresight:
Tel: 3643703

For press information contact:
Sally Prosser
Foresight
050 5740271