Born in Paris on July 17, 1993, Franco-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre began her career as a ballet dancer, before turning to opera singing after an accident. A chorister with the Maîtrise de l'Opéra de Paris at the age of twelve, she went on to study at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Boulogne-Billancourt, and took lessons in Venice with Sara Mingardo, then Véronique Gens. She then joined David Stern's Opera Fuoco troupe for her debut in the creation of Nicolas Bacri's Cosi fanciulli at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (2014), then William Christie's baroque music ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Winner of the seventh edition of Le Jardin des Voix (2015), she was nominated in the revelation category at the Victoires de la musique classique (2017), alongside opera productions in Aix-en-Provence, Versailles, the Philharmonie and Opéra-Comique de Paris, as well as in Vienna, Salzburg and Prague. Following recordings such as Handel: Italian Cantatas with Sabine Devieilhe (2018), Le Couronnement de Poppée and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with Les Arts Florissants, Lea Desandre signs her first Amazon recital in 2021, with the participation of Thomas Dunford (lute) and his ensemble Jupiter, William Christie, Jean Rondeau, Véronique Gens and Cecilia Bartoli. His Paris Opéra debut takes place in January 2022 as Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, between performances at the Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg festivals. Following the release of the album Idylle (2023), performed as a duet with her partner the lutenist and theorbist Thomas Dunford, comes the role of Médée in Charpentier's opera at the Palais Garnier (Paris). On June 6, 2024, Lea Desandre sings the Marseillaise at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, before a new collaboration with Dunford and the Jupiter ensemble for the recital Songs of Passion (2025), an anthology of arias by Dowland and Purcell.
