Baritone Leon Košavić began his vocal education at the age of twelve at the Music School in Karlovac. He graduated from the General Gymnasium in Karlovac as the top student in his generation. He also attended the High School of Music in Karlovac. In 2010, he enrolled at the Music Academy in Zagreb, where he graduated in the class of Giorgio Suriano. He continued his education at "The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel" in Belgium under the guidance of maestro Jose van Dam. In 2011, he won first prize at the Croatian National Student Competition, and in the same year, as the youngest soloist, he successfully performed in the role of Morales in the student production of the opera Carmen by G. Bizet. He made his debut at the Zagreb Croatian National Theatre in 2012 as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute. He won the Audience Award at the Young Singer of the Year 2013 competition of the Zagreb Concert Directorate and the winner of the 2nd Croatian Competition of Young Music Artists Papandopulo, in the solo singing category. In 2014, he won third prize at the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition in Finland. In the same year, he received the Ferdo Livadić Award at the competition as part of the 39th Samobor Musical Autumn. He was named Young Musician of the Year in 2014 along with the Zagreb Philharmonic Award. He won the Emmerich Smola Förderpreis 2015 in Germany, and in the same year he was a finalist in the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Norway. For the role of Don Giovanni in the opera of the same name by W. A. Mozart, produced by the Croatian National Theatre of Osijek, he received the Croatian Actors' Association Award for exceptional achievement by young artists under the age of thirty in the field of opera in 2015. He won third prize at the 9th Stanisław Moniuszko International Competition in Warsaw in 2016, and first prize for the best performance of an opera aria by a Polish author. In his rich artistic career, he has performed on a large number of domestic and foreign stages. He has performed roles in productions of all domestic national opera houses in collaboration with renowned conductors and directors such as: Pavle Dešpalj, Vladimir Kranjčević, Loris Voltolini, Robert Bošković, Krešimir Dolenčić, Mladen Tarbuk, Ivo Lipanović, Valentin Egel, Dora Ruždjak Podolski, Filip Pavišić, Georgij Paro and others. He has been a member of the ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek since December 2020 as the Opera Champion. Since 2015, he has regularly performed abroad. Of his foreign performances, the most significant are his guest appearances at the Covent Garden Opera in London in 2017, 2019 and 2022, as well as opera and concert productions in Zurich, Geneva, Palermo, Turin, Brussels, Montreal (Canada), Stuttgart, Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Vienna (Theater an der Wien), Madrid, Atlanta, Sao Paolo and others. He collaborates with many renowned conductors and directors: Nathalie Stutzmann, Riccardo Muti, Marie-Eve Signeyrole, Marc Minkowski, Kasper Holten, David Alden, Vasily Petrenko, Peter Konwitschny, Antonino Fogliani, Christophe Coppens, Christophe Rousset, Chiara Muti, Jérémie Rhorer, Hervé Niquet, Emilio Sagi, Ben Glassberg and others. He is currently participating in the tour of the operetta "Die Fledermaus" under the conductorship of Marc Minkowski, and among his more important future projects he expects to collaborate with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and perform in Tokyo under the direction of Mo. Riccardo Muti.
