Lesley Anne Friend, was recently seen creating the starring role of Myra Foster in a workshop staged reading of award winning composer Stephen Schwartz's first opera, Seance on a Wet Afternoon and as Mrs. Gobineau in Menotti's The Medium with Victoria Livengood as Baba, both at the Seagle Music Colony. Her other roles include: Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw; the Female Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia; Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda; Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff; Ariadne in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; Contessa D’Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro; and Magda Sorel in Menotti’s masterpiece, The Consul. Reprising her role from July 2005, Lesley can be heard on Albany Records premiere recording of Pasatieri's Signor Deluso as Clara with the Opera Company of Brooklyn. Ms. Friend spent the summer 2006 season at the Aspen Music Festival in the Opera Theatre Center, under the direction on Edward Berkley, where she also studied with Luretta Bybee and Dolores Ziegler. Lesley received her B.M. cum laude in Performance, in 2006 from Montclair State University, where she studied with Dr. Stephen Oosting; and her M.M. in Opera from The Boston Conservatory in 2008 and is studying with Dr. Rebecca Folsom.