The following is extracted from Volume IV of the 1986 edition of South African Music Encyclopedia (J.P. Malan, ISBN 0 19 570311 1)
LESLIE PHILLIPS, tenor, born 26 November 1927 in Johannesburg
Leslie Phillips attended school in East London until 1944 and graduated from Witwatersrand University in 1948. During this time he studied voice production under Arnold Fulton and Bruce Anderson and began to sing professionally in 1949. In the 1950s he appeared in pantomimes and operettas sponsored by African Consolidated Theatres, including The New Moon and A Night in Venice, in which he appeared with Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth. He also sang tenor roles in several productions by the Opera Society of South Africa (formed 1957). At the Union Festival in 1960 he appeared in Rigoletto and The Magic Flute. He took the part of Schubert in Lilac Time (Pretoria Opera Group) and has been active in productions by the Johannesburg Operatic and Dramatic Society. At the inauguration of the Johannesburg Civic Theatre in 1963 he was offered a role in The Tales of Hoffmann and was subsequently prominent in PACT productions, including Tosca and Die Fledermaus and in PACOFS' production of Der Vogelhändler. He acted as the business manager and leading tenor of the Orpheus Singers, the well-known quartet formed by Adolph Hallis in 1964.
