“Blessed with a voice that is lovely and rich” (St. Louis Post Dispatch), soprano Leann Schuering is in demand as a vocalist and voice teacher in the St. Louis region. She has performed solo engagements and leading roles with many of the area’s most prominent performing arts organizations, including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, The Muny, the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Union Avenue Opera, St. Louis Art Song, The Kingsbury Ensemble, and others.
The 2023-24 season brings some new collaborations to Leann's schedule, including two concerts with Chamber Project Saint Louis, an appearance with the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra, and a gala concert for Skylark Opera Theatre in Minnesota. Leann has also programmed a new recital for October 2023, "Myth, Mirth and Enchantment: Spellbinding Songs for the Spookiest Season," to be performed with pianist James Barnett. March 2024 will bring a return to the Kingsbury Ensemble, St. Louis' premiere early music organization, for a performance of Bach's Coffee Cantata.
Leann's St. Louis career highlights include roles with Union Avenue Opera (Charlotte, A Little Night Music; Josephine, H.M.S. Pinafore; Miss Wordsworth, Albert Herring), Winter Opera Saint Louis (Sylviane, A Merry Widow; Sally, Die Fledermaus), Vivaldi's Gloria with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival's A Late Summer Night's Stroll (in partnership with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis), and ensemble roles at St. Louis' storied Muny (Disney's Beauty and the Beast; The Sound of Music). Leann is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.
Outside of St. Louis, Leann has performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, the Adrian Symphony Orchestra, Opera MODO, LOFTRecital, and others. She was one of ten singers chosen from across the country to attend the Art Song Festival at Baldwin Wallace in 2017, and she attended SongFest in Los Angeles as a Stern Fellow in 2009. There she studied and performed with pianists Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, and Graham Johnson; and American composers Lori Laitman, Tom Cipullo, John Musto, and Jake Heggie. She continues to champion the performance of art song in her own community.
Leann is a two-time St. Louis District Winner and Third Place Midwest Region Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2013 she was awarded Third Place at the International Czech and Slovak Singing Competition in Montréal, and in 2014 she was an International Semi-Finalist at the Hans Gabor Belvedere Opera Competition in Düsseldorf.
Leann has over ten years of teaching experience at the collegiate level, including Applied Voice, Opera Workshop, Diction, and Vocal Literature. She is currently on the voice faculty of Webster University in St. Louis and has taught at Millikin University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois. She has a Level II certification in Somatic Voicework, a certification in Soul Ingredients ®: Pedagogy of Soul Singing, and is a certified yoga instructor through the National Exercise Trainer’s Association. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Chicago, an MM in Voice from the University of Illinois, and a DMA in Voice from the University of Michigan.