Mary-Jess Leaverland

Whilst studying Mandarin Chinese in China, Mary-Jess won 民星唱翻天 ‘The Chinese X Factor’, a TV singing contest with a live viewing audience of over 70 million people. Shortly after, she released her début album ‘Shine’ with Decca, which won numerous awards.

Mary-Jess has toured with Russell Watson and G4 as their special guest soprano, performed with Sir Tim Rice and Don Black, sang to royalty in Windsor Castle, appeared on numerous national TV programs both in the UK and in China, and was chosen to sing the Downton Abbey theme tune.  She also performed at the FA Cup Final in Wembley Stadium singing ‘Abide With Me’ in front of a live audience of 90,000 people and a worldwide television audience of 300 million people.

Besides her own début record, Mary-Jess released her winter album ‘Prayer to a Snowflake’ in November 2016 to critical acclaim, and she has also featured on 11 other albums. These include ‘Now That’s What I Call Classical’, the official Downton Abbey soundtrack albums, the Rugby World Cup ‘World in Union’ album, and she was asked to sing Faith Hill’s ‘There You’ll Be’ for the Band of H. M. Royal Marines’ album ‘Summon the Heroes’ due to her family connections with the forces. This was then included on the album ‘Music for Heroes’.

After singing at The GREAT Festival of Creativity in Shanghai, Mary-Jess was invited to Number 10 Downing Street where she was asked to become the next representative of The GREAT Britain Campaign, and so she now represents UK music in 144 countries around the world. She is also a ‘Leading Light’ of the Generation UK China Network, an initiative set up by the British Council in China to encourage links between the UK and China.

Mary-Jess is a member of the Royal British Legion Gloucester City Branch, patron of The Door Youth Project which help troubled, disengaged young people and their families, and she is an ambassador for Half the Sky, a charity that help orphaned and abandoned children in China.

2018 sees Mary-Jess returning by popular demand as guest soprano on G4’s Live Tour in March and September. In April she’ll release a new EP through PledgeMusic, the aim of which is to help young singers get a foothold in the music industry and so it features duets with some of the UK’s most exciting young artists: Tazmin Barnes, Beth Ford, Ffion Rebecca, G4 Young Voices, The London Chinese Philharmonic Choir and Kyle Tomlinson. She will be back on the road for her solo Winter Tour starting in November, to showcase her winter album ‘Prayer to a Snowflake’.