Lesley Kingham began taking piano lessons with her father at the age of four in Chatham, Ontario and started accompanying the junior choir at her local church when she was twelve. She received her ARCT in piano performance while still in high school.
Lesley's first appointment as organist and choir director was at St Paul's Anglican Church in Chatham, where she remained from 1988-1990.
Lesley received her Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Western Ontario in 1994, at which time she was awarded the gold medal for pipe organ performance. Attendance at Western was assisted each year by a Faculty of Music Scholarship. During her studies she was the assistant organist at St James Westminster Anglican Church and the accompanist for the Amabile Boys' Choirs.
Lesley went on to graduate from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana with a Masters in Pipe Organ Performance and Literature in 1996. Throughout the program she served as the liturgical assistant at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Lesley came to the Niagara area after her university studies to become the organist and music director at St Barnabas Anglo-Catholic Church in St Catharines, where she remained from 1996 to 2015. She is currently serving as the music director at St Thomas’ Anglican Church. She has served as the staff accompanist and organ instructor at Brock University since 1997 and is also a private music tutor at Ridley College.
Lesley has played for the Avanti Chamber Singers since its inception in 2005 and is in demand in the Niagara area as an accompanist. Lesley is a member of ORMTA (Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association) and has a vibrant home studio where she offers piano, voice, theory and pipe organ lessons.