Biography

Leah Frey-Rabine studied at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, receiving her Bachelor of Music in opera, and her Master of Music in vocal performance. She received numerous awards for academic and musical excellence, and was a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Auditions and the WGN Chicago Auditions of the Air. She came to Germany on a DAAD stipend, studying for two semesters at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, before beginning her first opera engagement in Kaiserslautern. She was a member of the opera companies in Bern, Flensburg, Nürnberg, Hagen and Frankfurt. In 1983, she began singing the dramatic soprano repertoire, embarking soon afterward on an international career.
Her roles at the Frankfurt Opera included Senta in The Flying Dutchman, Leonore in Fidelio, and Brünnhilde in the Ruth Berghaus production of Wagner’s Ring. Berghaus brought her to Dresden for the title role in her new production of Elektra. Other roles in Dresden included Salome, Leonore, and Senta in Wolfgang Wagner’s production of The Flying Dutchman.
In 1983, she received a Young Artists’ Award from the German State of Nordrhein-Westfalen for her first Brünnhilde, in the renowned John Dew Ring. In 1989, International President Josef Lienhart made her an honorary member of the Richard Wagner Society.
At the same time, she continued to develop her pedagogical skills, gradually shifting her focal point to teaching in Germany and abroad. Since 2003, she has been the voice teacher for the Frankfurt Opera Chorus, and she maintains an active studio in Frankfurt and at her home in Niddatal-Bönstadt.
She is a member of the National Association of German Voice Teachers (Bundesverband Deutscher Gesangspädagogen BDG e. V.), the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and the Frankfurter Tonkünstlerbund (Frankfurt Musical Artists’ Organization