Brian Leeper
Senior Lecturer

Education

BA-Music Education Luther College; MM-Voice Performance University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Further graduate study towards the DM-Voice Performance Florida State University

Biography

Baritone Brian Leeper currently teaches studio voice, opera workshop and Hawk-Kor at UW-Whitewater.  In demand as a soloist and clinician, he has presented master classes and recitals at Universities and Festivals across the United States, Canada, Germany and Italy.  Frequently appearing as soloist in Oratorio and Opera, Mr. Leeper has also performed over twenty major roles with opera companies in the US and abroad.  He made his New York City debut performing the role of Dulcamara in Donezetti's L'Elisir d'Amore at CAMI Hall. 

• Brian has been featured as soloist in Wisconsin area performances of The Verdi Requiem, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Rutter's Mass of the Children and Handel's Messiah.  Mr. Leeper is the former Artistic Director of La Musica Lirica, a five-week summer opera program in Novafeltria, Italy, and was previously on the voice faculty of Operafestival di Roma, in Rome, Italy, and currently is on the faculty of Festival of International Opera Italia (FIO Italia) in Urbania, Italy.  He is also the founder and director of the UW-Whitewater Solo Voice Camp, a week-long summer music camp for high school singers. 

• Brian is an active member of ACDA and the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and serves as advisor for the UWW Student Chapter of NATS. His students have been finalists in NATS Auditions at the State, Regional and National levels, as well as the Seattle Opera International Wagner Competition and The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Brian's teachers include Roy Delp, Yvonne Ciannella, David Judisch, Harold Stark & Richard Grace.

• In 2011, Brian was named the UWW Academic Excellence Award for Academic Staff Teaching recipient.  He was chosen to be a member of the University of Wisconsin System-Wide Faculty College in 2023 (Teaching and Learning with a Social Justice Lens) and the same year also awarded an Incorporating Inclusion, Equity and Diversity in Academic Affairs (IDEIAA) Grant – (UWW Hawk-Kor, Building a More Inclusive and Diverse Choral Ensemble). Brian was a Poster presenter at the 2023 Celebrating Teaching and Learning Conference, and was also winner of the UWW College of Arts and Communication Interdisciplinary Collaboration Award with Morgan "Piper" Hayes, (Theatre/Dance) for Combining Music Performance and Choreography in Hawk-Kor.

Classes Taught

Currently: Studio Voice, Opera Performance Techniques, Hawk-Kor, Class Voice

Previously taught at UWW: Voice Pedagogy, Diction for Singers, Vocal Literature