Leah Hawkins Captivates at the Park Avenue Armory
Awards by the Richard Tucker Foundation
By: Susan Hall - Sep 16, 2024
Leah Hawkins performed in the Officers Room at the Park Avenue Armory. She mesmerizes for her moment as Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess. You perked up for her Masha in Queen of Spades. She has performed an off-stage prayer in Aida and graduates to the highly-anticipated title role of the opera in Arizona next spring. A singer who can stop a show in a minute in a 4,000 seat venue, filled this intimate room to overflowing.
The big, beautiful voice is always present. In this program, a mix of French composers and a potpourri of American composers who also dip into Swahili, Zimbabwean, Hausa and Yourba, the two parts had different textures. In French, Ms. Hawkins sings smoothly, rounded out and extending vowels, skipping over consonants, a characteristic of the French language.
Enveloped by her voice, listeners followed her pre-concert request to dispense with thought and go with the music. Francis Poulenc’s 'chemins' cut the luxurious tones arrestingly. The seldom peformed Lili Boulanger provided a bridge between the first and second parts with its 'nous, nous.'
Ms. Hawkins swirled around in a strapless red and black dress, with puffed sleeves and a heart-shaped center.
Keith Miller accompanying offered the perfume of the French music and the jazzy rhythms of Joel Thompson, Jasmine Barnes and Peter Ashbourne. Poulenc’s cuts of ‘chemin’ in the first part were a welcome disruption to the smooth presentation.
Leah Hawkins gave the audience another memorable evening.