About

Leo is the recipient of the First Prize at the Miesczysław Munz Scholarship Competition at The Juilliard School. In New York, he has been invited to perform solo recitals as part of the Sparkill Recital Series in New York for the 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons. He has also been invited to perform in events and venues such as the Yale School of Music’s New Music New Haven series, as well as Harvard College for a public fundraiser concert organized by the Leon Fleisher Academy.

Raised in Cape Town, Leo remains deeply connected to South Africa. There, his musical studies progressed under the tutelage of Professors Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães—in which time he became a first prize winner at several prestigious national music competitions in South Africa, including the SAMRO Hubert van der Spuy and Atterbury national piano competitions. In 2022, he was invited back to South Africa: performing concertos with the Cape Town, Kwa-Zulu Natal, and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestras— followed by a seven-city solo recital tour across the country. In 2023, he performed with the Cape Town Philharmonic for the final concert of their Summer Season, as well as for the Huberte Rupert Memorial Concert. He has been invited to perform as a soloist with the Mzanzi Philharmonic Orchestra in a three-city tour in South Africa at the end of this year. 

From 2017-2020, Leo moved to Cleveland, Ohio to further his music studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s (CIM) prestigious Young Artist’s Program under the tutelage of Kathryn Brown and Daniel Shapiro. During this time, he received the Grand Prize at the 2019 Baltimore International Piano Festival Competition, which included a recital invitation at Weill Recital Hall NY in Summer 2020. Additionally, in 2019, he was awarded the Grand Prize and Junior Division Prize at the 6th Coltman Chamber Music Competition, which included an invitation to perform at the 37th Annual Young Musicians Concert at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NY in Spring 2020. 

From the start of his musical career, Leo has continuously been involved with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s Masidlale grassroots project: an outreach program teaching all orchestral instruments to underprivileged children in the townships around Cape Town. He has donated a portion of his performance fees to Masidlale since he was 13 years old. 

As an active composer and sound artist, Leo has been invited to premiere compositions and electronic sets at places such as LittleGig in South Africa, the highSCORE Festival for Contemporary Composition in Italy, and the Juilliard School. He is an owner of a Lumatone Isomorphic Keyboard. 

Aside from performing and composing, he also enjoys hiking in natural environments, as well as discussing and watching art and film.