Leonard Weiss

Leonard Weiss is an Australian conductor and educator, and inaugural recipient of the 2021 NSW Orchestral Conducting (Early Career) Fellowship. He has recently assisted the Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras and earlier this year was Assistant Conductor for National Opera's La Clemenza di Tito. Leonard was the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra... 's 2020-21 BSO-Peabody Fellow and studied conducting with Marin Alsop at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where he was awarded as their "rising star" in 2020. Leonard received the 2020 Mr and Mrs Gerald Frank New Churchill Fellowship which will lead to international development opportunities in 2022. He is an Ars Musica Australis Arts Fellow and received support to study with maestro Alsop by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and by the American Australian Association Arts Fund. Leonard is the inaugural Active Patron of the Hume Youth Orchestra. On faculty at Hume Conservatorium, this role connects him with passionate young musicians and leading musical mentors to shape the experiences for this unique orchestra, operating across three cities in NSW, Australia. "A masterful performance under the direction of Leonard Weiss... nuanced, expressive and subtle [conducting style], there is no mistaking what he asks of the orchestra." Weiss had the orchestra sounding the best I had heard... they responded perfectly to even the subtlest of gestures. There was gorgeous balance between sections and superbly controlled expression throughout. Celebrated as the "ubiquitous Mr Music" (CityNews, July 2019) Leonard was the Musical Director and Conductor of the National Capital Orchestra (2015 - 2019), the Canberra Youth Orchestra (2015 - 2019), the Australian National University Choral Society (2015 - 2019) and the Canberra Qwire (2014 - 2018). Leonard is the Co-founder and Artistic Director of the Canberra Sinfonia, a semi-professional chamber orchestra inaugurated in 2018, and has conducted ...Read More