First-year Adler Fellow Leah Crocetto hails from Adrian, Michigan and Oxford, Connecticut. The soprano is an alumna of the 2008 Merola Opera Program, where she performed scenes as Norina (Don Pasquale) and the title role of Manon in the Schwabacher Summer Concert. Her other credits include The Baker’s Wife and The Witch (Into the Woods) and Flower Girl (Naughty Marietta), and she was a recent soloist with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony on the Verdi Requiem and will perform the piece with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in November 2009. Crocetto holds a bachelor’s degree from Siena Heights University and attended the Moody Bible Institute for voice. The soprano is a former member of the Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artists Program, where she appeared in scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro and on the main stage as A Singer in La Rondine. Her awards include a 2008 Shoshana Foundation Award; second place in the Florida Suncoast Opera Guild Competition; first prize in the Bel Canto Foundation Competition; the Italian American Foundation Award; and the Satasota Opera Guild Excellence in Performance Award. She is a two-time grand prize winner of the N.A.T.S. Chicago Chapter competition and was a finalist in the Anna Maria di Panni Bel Canto Competition.