Kerson Leong

Violinist Kerson Leong continued his education even as he launched an international career. He is also in demand for master classes. Leong was born on February 26, 1997, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Leong's father was a physicist, and Leong has remained interested in the intersections between physics and music, for example, in the physics of violin construction. Leong took up the violin at age four; his teacher was Calvin Sieb, concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Leong had a run of five consecutive years (2005-2009) as the grand prize winner at the national Canadian Music Competition, and that only touched off a series of competition wins that included a first prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in 2010. That prize brought with it performing opportunities in Europe, and by the middle of the decade, Leong was performing regularly in major venues. He made his recording debut in 2016 on the Analekta label with the album Bis, backed by pianist Philip Chiu. Meanwhile, Leong was continuing his education through a series of mentorships. He worked with Patinka Kopec at the Canadian National Arts Centre Young Artist Program, and he also counted Jonathan Crow and Laurence Kayaleh. Leong was artist-in-residence from 2015 to 2019 at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he was mentored by Augustin Dumay. In 2016, he premiered John Rutter's Visions for violin, chorus, and orchestra with Rutter's Aurora Orchestra, and he subsequently recorded the work under Rutter's direction and performed it in various cities, including London, New York, and Hong Kong. Leong served under conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal during the 2018-2019 season, and he performed at the G7 government economics meetings in Charlevoix, Quebec. Signed to the Alpha label, Leong released an album of Eugène Ysaÿe's difficult Six Sonatas for solo violin in 2021. He returned in 2023 with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Patrick Hahn in a recording of violin concertos by Britten and Bruch. Leong has taught or given master classes at Indiana University, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the University of Ottawa, and other institutions.
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