Singer

“Captivating, hypnotic” - Opera

“from Barbara Strozzi and Handel to John Adams, Kurt Weill and How Far I’ll Go from the Disney animation Moana…Lester not only navigates the varied musical styles with ease, but also draws them atmospherically into an interiorised, private arena” - The Stage

“Strozzi’s cantata Il Lamento surged with passion, not least in the powerful singing of freewheeling musician CN Lester” - The Times

“a truly affecting performance” - OperaWire

CN Lester is a mezzo-soprano/alto specialising in early and contemporary opera and song, with a particular love for Baroque music, new works, improvised and interactive pieces, and promoting underrepresented composers. CN is mentored by Charlotte Hartley at Britten Pears Arts and taught by Alison Wells. Upcoming performances include a new improvised operatic installation for voidspace in June 2024, and a new imagining of Erik Satie’s Socrate with Leo Doulton in July 2024.

Alongside Ursula’s Arrow partner Sarah Dacey, CN is a 2022 Snape Resident; they used their May residency to create a jukebox opera of Barbara Strozzi’s compositions, following on from UA’s Arts Council funded research and development. The Unknown Goddess: An Imaginary Opera by Barbara Strozzi benefitted from further R&D development funded by ACE in Summer 2024, and is currently in development for staging in 2025.

CN’s previous engagements as an operatic soloist and recitalist include work with Kings Head Theatre, Snape Maltings, Spitalfields Music, Grimeborn, Brighton Early Music Festival, National Theatre Studio, Barbican, British Library, Hampstead Garden Opera, universities throughout the UK, and extensive collaboration with the Tête à Tête Festival. Favourite repertoire includes works by Monteverdi, Caccini, Strozzi, Leonarda, Vivaldi, Dowland, Purcell, Handel, Gluck, Schoenberg, Weill, Britten, and Weir.

CN has a deep love for improvising and devising operatic works, having worked extensively with Leo Doulton to create audience-driven, interactive, improvised musical-drama worlds.

Researcher

CN holds an interdisciplinary performance/research PhD on composer Barbara Strozzi from The University of Huddersfield, completed under the supervision of Dr Lisa Colton. As an early career academic, they’re focused on making their work on Strozzi, on gender in music and history, and on gender and cultural reception, as accessible as possible through podcasts, articles, and live performance. Their PhD research forms a key component of their upcoming Snape Residency. For previous podcasts and radio broadcasts please see Press page - for information on previous lectures and seminars please see here.

CN’s doctoral thesis is available via the British Library: “Representing Strozzi: a critical and personal re-evaluation of her life and music” They’re currently working on transforming this research into both academic chapters and into The Unknown Goddess.

Composer & Deviser

“CN Lester's glowing composition - poised somewhere between disquiet and transcendence, a different tone for each attempt at resolution - the effect is both beautiful and humbling” - Sabotage Reviews

CN studied composition with Jonathan Cole and Silvina Milstein; their first opera, The Lion-Faced Man (mezzo-soprano, piano trio, static image, libretto by Robin Gurney) was premiered to a sold-out run at the 2015 Tête à Tête Festival. After taking a break from public sharings of their classical compositions during their PhD, they are now returning to public commissions and performances. Recent commissions include choral works for young voices for the 2023 Friday Afternoon Series for Britten Pears Arts/National Youth Choir, a 10th anniversary work for the Fourth Choir, and incidental music for Jamie Hale’s theatrical production NOT DYING.

CN is currently working on a collection of vocal/piano works based on historical poems of openly expressed queer yearning, eroticism, and love, inspired by the particular vocal qualities of a range of collaborators. Songs of Desire currently features poetry by Proust, Lowell, Rimbaud, and Verlaine: more to come throughout 2024.