ABOUT
In 2024, Australian soprano Cleo Lee-McGowan competed in the final rounds of Operalia, and was a semifinalist in the Belvedere Singing Competition. Cleo also covered Sœur Constance in Barrie Kosky’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the Norwegian National Opera, and made her solo debut in Oslo in 2023 as Juno in Orfeus i Underverdenen. Cleo made her debut with English National Opera as First Niece in Peter Grimes in 2023. She was a Jerwood Young Artist at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2022, where she made her house debut as First Bridesmaid, and covered the role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. She returned to Glyndebourne in 2023 as the soprano soloist in Haydn’s The Creation and to cover Tytania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Cleo Lee-McGowan made her debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2020 as a soloist in Joe Hisaishi’s East Land Symphony. She also debuted with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2019 as Second Niece in Peter Grimes with chief conductor David Robertson.
Cleo was the recipient of the Joseph Sambrook Opera Scholarship through Melba Opera Trust from 2017 to 2019. She has performed the role of Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Victorian Opera both in their 2018 Melbourne season and their 2017 regional tour of Victoria. In 2018 Cleo was a soloist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2017, Cleo was featured as a soloist in a live broadcast on ABC Classic FM in celebration of International Women’s Day.
In 2019, Cleo won the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship, and competed as a finalist in the JSRB Bel Canto Award where she was the recipient of the Sanderson Award and Hawaii Performing Arts Prize. In 2018, Cleo was a finalist in the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition and was the recipient of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Award, Pasqualina Lipari Prize, Sydney Symphony Orchestra Award, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Prize and Audience Prize.
Cleo is a graduate of the prestigious Opera School at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She played the title roles in Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon and Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune. She was a soloist with London City Orchestra, playing Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, and performed Musetta with Silk Street Productions in 2021. She holds a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne, where she was the recipient of a number of scholarships.
