Flutist Leo Sussman grew up playing chamber music in living rooms and gigging with a salsa band in his hometown of San Francisco.

Passionate about the power of music to build community, Leo delights in engaging audiences and mentoring students across New York City and beyond.

As a performer, Leo loves nothing better than curating provocative programs and bringing new music to life.

Some highlights include performances at the Philharmonie de Paris, Tippet Rise Art Center, and Black Rock City; the premiere recording of Julia Wolfe’s Oxygen; and shows around NYC with groups including Alarm Will Sound, SEM Ensemble, and Metropolis Ensemble. In recent summers he has received fellowships at the Norfolk, Bowdoin, and Atlantic chamber music festivals.

As an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Leo appeared regularly in Weill Recital Hall throughout the 2018-2020 seasons. His wind quintet, ConnectFive, received Chamber Music America’s 2021 Ensemble Forward grant and has performed across the northeast, including through an educational partnership with Quogue Chamber Music on Long Island.

When not fiddling around with his own electroacoustic experiments, throughout the pandemic Leo has commissioned and recorded a growing body of new works for flute.

Leo is on faculty at DePauw University and maintains a private flute studio. Also an experienced teaching artist, he leads creative music-making residencies as well as designs interactive chamber music performances.

Leo is currently a doctoral candidate at Manhattan School of Music. He earned a master’s degree from Yale School of Music and undergraduate degrees in music and physics from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. His principal flute teachers are Linda Chesis, Ransom Wilson, Erin Lesser, and Leslie Chin.

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