Freedom as a Singer and an Actor
Make it Sparkle Video with Leah Horowitz
Professional Singer and Actor
3:12 (runtime)
Director’s Notes
Professional Leah Horowitz emphasizes the importance of rehearsal and hard work in the craft of singing and acting, suggesting that persistent practice is crucial. Early in her career, she was often hired as a swing due to her organization and responsibility.
Leah enjoys long runs of a show and the opportunity to continually refine her performance. She suggests that being able to incorporate her personal feelings and experiences each night allows her to start from a different place, adding uniqueness to each performance.
She reflects on her time performing in the musical 'Follies', where she sang 'One More Kiss' for nearly a year across three productions. Despite the repetition, she never tired of the song, always finding something new to explore within it.
For Leah, repetition doesn't lead to boredom—instead, it offers a sense of freedom. Knowing a song or a show inside and out allows her to navigate her performance according to the audience's response and her own feelings on any given day.
Horowitz believes that deep knowledge of a piece provides an actor or singer with greater freedom in their performance. For instance, in auditions, knowing lines well allows the performer to focus on their acting, contributing to a better overall performance.
More About Leah
Leah Horowitz was born and raised on Staten Island, home of the Staten Island Ferry, Ralph’s Ices, and the best pizza in New York City. Raised by a speech pathologist mother from West Virginia and a banjo player father from Brooklyn, Leah grew up with no discernable New York accent in a house filled with music and cats. She and her mother were heavily involved in community theater (as actor and costumer, respectively), and spent most of their nights and weekends with show people. When it came time to go to college, Leah thought she’d major in some sort of science – acting seemed too impractical and unstable a profession. An acceptance to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts changed her mind. Cut to the present, and Leah still sometimes thinks maybe she should’ve been an engineer. Don’t ask her which kind – she just likes the sound of it.
However, seven Broadway shows and many regional credits later, Leah has to admit she has done reasonably well. She last appeared on Broadway in the acclaimed revival of Follies as Young Heidi, and, more recently, has been a principal singer several times for New York City Ballet. She has been seen on TV as a sassy nun in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live, and at Madison Square Garden performing with Phish in their New Years Eve concert (twice!). She has been heard in numerous commercial jingles, including singing “Mm Mm Good!” for Campbell’s Soup. The pandemic prompted her to build a home recording studio, and she has now narrated over 20 audiobooks. All in all, not a boring life.
Leah lives in New Jersey with her husband Matty D Stuart, actor and DJ extraordinaire, her daughter, Penelope, and her dog Ruby. In addition to work, she enjoys reading the latest great novels and then making her friends read them, watching too many TV shows, knitting, eating sushi, and visiting HomeGoods regularly.