Leonardo Le San Biography
Pianist and Composer, Leonardo Le San was the winner of the prestigious “El Award” in 2010. El Diario, La Prensa, the oldest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and largest Hispanic publication in NYC gives the award to the most outstanding and influential Latinos in New York’s Tri-State area. Le San’s video interpreting Chopin’s “Revolutionary” Etude has been presented by the World News Network which delivers news in politics, entertainment in the US and in 44 languages (http://wn.com/Classicalvideo10). On December 16th, 2010 Leonardo performed a private piano concert at the Harvard Musical Association in celebration of Beethoven’s birthday. Dr. Rob Ellis, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Medical School was the concert host and spoke about neuroscience and music preceding Leonardo’s solo performance. Also in 2010, Le San was invited to be the featured artist to open the ceremony of the Fifth Annual New York’s Book-Expo taking place at the Queens Museum of Art. The multilingual event housed one hundred authors of contemporary literature from all over the world and Leonardo interpreted works by Beethoven during the opening.
Leonardo Le San made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall on June 26th, 2010. The artist dedicated this concert in New York to Colombia’s bicentennial and performed works by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Le San’s original compositions. The pianist also dedicated this concert to Chopin whose bicentennial was also celebrated around the world in 2010. The Newspaper Epoch Times recommended Leonardo’s concert on their publication for “NYC Event Picks”. Leonardo also appeared in the New Music Calendar for NYC during the Months of May and June 2010. The television channel RCN covered the concert and the video clip report aired on the network’s national and international news programming. World Magazine published an article about Leonardo’s life story and career development. This article was also highlighted by newspapers USA Today.com, Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union- Tribune, Florida.com and on the National Public Radio’s “Arts and Entertainment” web page in the United States. Value Diversity.org also provided media support and continues to publish news about Le San’s work.
Leonardo has been invited to perform solo recitals in Annapolis, MD, Villanova, PA, and other private venues in the United States during 2010. On December 13, 2009, Leonardo’s solo concert in the Ibrahim Theater at International House Philadelphia had a full house of college students and residents of the Philadelphia area.
Leonardo Le San released his first album of works by Beethoven, Scriabin, Liszt and Prokofiev sponsored by the New Jersey based company, Ionian Productions in the year 2006. Leonardo’s recording was ranked # 1 in the category for Beethoven’s Top Albums on CD Baby in 2008 (www.leonardolesan.com/discography). Le San was also among top 20 on iTunes in 2008 in the category of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz recordings, alongside albums by the Berlin Philharmonic, Horowitz and Rubinstein.In 2007, the Colombian television network Telecafe chose Leonardo to perform in celebration of the network’s 15th anniversary. The filmed performance aired on February 3, 2008 and has been rebroadcast 10 times by Telecafe through its satellite signal to Europe, North America and North Africa as well as through Jumptv.com worldwide.
In 2006, Leonardo was also the first performer to begin the city of Manizales’s 157th anniversary at the Teatro Fundadores (The Founders Theater) followed by performances by The Black Theatre of Prague and other various shows. In the same year during his tour through the interior of Colombia, Le San performed at the Theater Santiago Londono in the city of Pereira for the most attended Classical solo recital in the records of the theater. The pianist also performed seven solo recitals for thousands of children in Colombia before returning to the United States.
Since 2008, Leonardo has also remained active as a composer writing works for lyric soprano, tenor, jazz ensembles, and an Irish music project. He has also written works for string quartet, flute and piano commissioned by Olivet PCUSA.
In 2005, Leonardo performed at the Delaware Theater Company, opening the concert for Grammy nominated artist Regina Carter. Le San also performed a solo concert at the Clifford Brown Recital Hall and served as Artistic Director of the hall’s Classical Music Series.
Leonardo has also performed works by J.S. Bach and Prokofiev in recording workshops taught by Grammy Award winning producer Andreas Meyer. Leonardo is presently mentored and coached by pianist and composer Dr. Orlando Otey and is studying with Conductor/Composer Dr. Jeremy Gill. Leonardo is currently in the process of recording his second solo piano album and is composing a concerto for piano and orchestra to be premiered by youth orchestras upon completion.