Kendra Preston Leonard, PhD – words, mostly for or about music

UPCOMING AND NEW

If you’d like news and updates in your inbox, feel free to subscribe to my very infrequent newsletter here.

I’ll be at NATS in San Antonio from July 4-6. Let me know ahead of time if you want to meet up!

Opera Contempo (which workshopped PROTECTRESS in 2025 and 2023) will be performing excerpts from THIS IS JANE at the Great Salt Lake Fringe festival in 2026! I’ll have dates and ticket information soon. In the meanwhile, sign up for Opera Contempo’s newsletter here.

CanvasRebel interviewed me, and while apparently my name confuses them, it’s a nice interview. (My full professional name is Kendra (first) Preston (middle) Leonard (last); alphabetize by Leonard, and my honorific is Dr., not Ms.)

The video of the 2024 production of THE HARBINGERS is now on YouTube.

A photograph of The Harbingers, showing the Soul in the center of a room full of patients and doctors

You can now watch New Wave Opera’s 2025 production of MARIE CURIE LEARNS TO SWIM on YouTube! (includes ASL interpretation)

On left, a chamber orchestra, conductor, and two women providing ASL interpretation. On right, MARIE CURIE (Lisa Neher) and IRÈNE CURIE (Lindsey Rae Johnson) sing to one another.

On left, a chamber orchestra, conductor, and two women doing ASL interpretation. On right, YOUNG MARIE (Alishia Garcia) and PIERRE CURIE (Zachary Lenox) sing together.

The amazing writer and advocate Finnian Burnett asked me Five Questions about being an activist artist, libretto-writing, and much more. Read it all here!

Composer Jessica Rudman and I are giving away the sheet music for “Where It’s Safe,” our piece about the importance of abortion access. Originally commissioned by Elizabeth Rudolph, it tells the stories of three people seeking an abortion. Each is at a different place in life—and each has different reasons for ending their pregnancy. Despite their differences, though, these women are united by the need to leave their homes and travel to a place where they can get the medical care they need. Jessica and I wrote this right after Roe v. Wade was overturned and many people lost access to abortion care—something the United Nations recognizes as a human right. Download it for free here.

In August 2024, a scene from This is Jane, my opera-in-progress with composer Angela Elizabeth Slater, was premiered at the Aspen Music Festival. Angela and I are seeking funding and support from companies, individuals, or other organizations to bring the full opera to the stage–please contact me if you are interested!