As an Associated Board Scholar, Lesley studied `cello, piano, singing and viola da gamba at the Royal Manchester and Royal Northern Colleges of Music. Later, awards from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and the King Edward V11 Foundation enabled her to join the Master Classes of Antonio Janigro and Paul Tortelier in Salzburg, Nice and Stuttgart, where she achieved the highest honours for performance.
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Debut recitals in London, an invitation to join Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s avant garde chamber group, “The Fires of London”, and a standing ovation at the QEH for her performance of “Vesalii Icones”, led to concerts throughout the UK, Europe, Latin America and Canada. She has broadcast on BBC, ITV and French radio and appeared in BBC2’s Tortelier’s Master Class series.
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Lesley’s broad vision of repertoire and skills has led to a wide range of musical partnerships. She has collaborated with dancers: “Dance Umbrella Festival”, organists, Robin Walker and Christopher Kent: a rich festivity of Bach: visual artist, Rachel Gadsden in: “Shamal’, a stirring evocation of survival: Russian pianist, Yekaterina Lebedeva in: “Fusion”: film, photography and music; and has appeared as guest artist on the QE2 and with the Choir of The Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace. Her recordings include “Cello in Song” with pianist Antony Saunders, and “This Holy Earth”, music by Charles Camilleri.
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In tandem with her performance career, Lesley has for many years accompanied and taught cello and piano; coached both instrumentalists and singers; and developed aural training skills. In addition, she has mentored and examined for the Associated Board and adjudicated for The National Chamber Music Competition and the Deutsche Jugend Musiziert. In recent months she has maintained an online music room and is happy to engage with an online presence for Festivals.
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