Biografy

Finnish soprano Leila Raakel Saari finished her studies in the Sibelius Academy Opera Ensemble in December 2025.

Highlights on the operatic stage include frour role debuts in Sibelius Academy Opera in 2023-2025. Orasia in Orpheus, A Lady with a Cake Box in Postcard from Morocco , Frau Fluth in Die lustige Weiber von Windsor and La Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Saari has also premiered new Finnish music in the role of Hilja Syrjämäki in Paavo Korpijaakko and Elina Snicker’s opera Ihmiset suviyössä at the Hämeenkyrö FEStiwaalit in 2023. With Jyväskylä Opera, she performed the role of Albertina in Joonas Kokkonen’s The Last Temptations in 2021.

As a concert singer, her repertoire ranges from lieder to sacred music. Most recently, Saari portrayed Aino Ackté in a dramatized concert honoring the anniversary year of composer Erkki Melartin at the Arabia Kaikuu Lied Festival in summer 2025. She has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO), the chamber orchestra Refugium Musicum, and the Kainuu Chamber Orchestra, performing works including Mendelssohn’s St Paul, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah. Last autumn she made an international concert appearances in Gdańsk and Sopot, Poland, with pianist Anna Prabucka-Firlej.

Leila Saari was a semifinalist in the Lappeenranta National Singing Competition in 2022. Her artistic work has been supported by the Central Finland Regional Fund of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Selim Eskelin Foundation, and Opera Education Patrons Finland.

Saari graduated as a vocal pedagogue from JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Jyväskylä (2018) and holds a Master of Arts degree in Music Education from the University of Jyväskylä (2016).