[2] After receiving her doctorate in 1975 on the Roman Baroque composer Stefano Landi, she spent three years as a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Rome, then two years as a fellow of the German Research Foundation.
As a research assistant to Carl Dahlhaus, she has taught at the Technische Universität Berlin since 1980, where she habilitated in 1987 with a thesis on poetry and music in the Italian solo singing of the early 17th century.
After an academic year as visiting scholar at Harvard University in 1985/86 and a substitute professorship in the summer semester 1988 at the University of Regensburg she was appointed in 1991 as full professor at the Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar Detmold/Paderborn [de] and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold.
Leopold held numerous elective positions in the Academic Self-Government; from 2001 to 2007 she was vice-rector for studies and teaching at Heidelberg University, where she was responsible for the conversion of courses to the BA/MA system and a sensible distribution concept for the newly introduced tuition fees.
Since 2006 Leopold has been head of the research centre of the Südwestdeutsche Hofmusik of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.