Lesley Garrett, CBE, is Britain’s most popular soprano, regularly appearing in both opera and in concert, on television and CD; she has won both critical acclaim and the affection of many fans and music lovers. As a recording artist, she has eleven solo CDs to her credit; Soprano in Red received the Gramophone Award for 'Best-selling Classical Artist of the Year', Diva! A Soprano At The Movies, Prima Donna, Simple Gifts,Soprano in Red, Soprano in Hollywood and I Will Wait for You all received silver discs and A Soprano Inspired and Lesley Garrett both achieved gold discs. Recent albums are Travelling Light, The Singer, So Deep is the Night, When I Fall in Love, and Amazing Grace. She was also a featured artist on the platinum sellingPerfect Day single released by the BBC in aid of Children in Need.

Lesley's major television appearances include 'Lesley Garrett…Tonight’ for the BBC featuring Lesley and guest artists as diverse as Renee Fleming and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Marti Pellow, Michel Legrand and Elaine Paige. The series continued as 'The Lesley Garrett Show' featuring programmes from Naples, Seville and New York with guest artists Marcello Alvarez, Ian Bostridge, Alison Moyet, Michael Ball, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Bell. Other BBC television appearances have included the documentary ‘Jobs for the Girls’ with Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke, ‘Viva la Diva’ and ‘The Lily Savage Show’. Lesley was also the subject of a South Bank Show on LWT and her music programmes continued on the BBC with 'The Singer', a specially filmed Christmas concert featuring Lesley and guest artists Jose Cura and Sibonglie Khumalo and ‘Sacred Songs’ featuring sacred music from around the world. Music from the album So Deep is the Night was made into a film titled ‘Lesley Garrett – Desert Dreams’. 

Lesley’s operatic career included early engagements at the Wexford Festival, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera before joining English National Opera in 1984. During her time with ENO, Lesley starred in many productions and won critical acclaim for her portrayals of both comic and serious roles. Lesley made her Royal Opera debut in their production of The Merry Widow in 1997. She returned to the Coliseum in the spring of 2001 for a revival of her acclaimed Rosina in Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’, having first performed it there in 1998.

In 2007, Lesley returned as a judge to 'Comic Relief Does Fame Academy' and continued in the ‘The Sound of Music’ before touring the UK with her own gala concerts. In the autumn she presented a new series for BBC 1 ‘Christmas Voices’  which returned to the BBC in autumn 2008 when Lesley joined a new production of ‘Carousel’ in the West End in the role of Nettie.

In 2011, Lesley returns to 'The Sound of Music' for the final two weeks of the UK tour as well as performing throughout the UK. Earlier in the year she co-presented a four part series for BBC1 celebrating the Royal Wedding called 'When Royals Wed' with Larry Lamb and performed once again at the BBC Last Night of the Proms from Belfast.  

Lesley was awarded a CBE in the 2002 New Year's Honours List for Services to Music.