Leonard Weiss
Pre-Concert Speaker
Leonard Weiss is an Australian conductor and educator. He was the 2022 New Zealand Assistant Conductor in Residence, where he was based with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and worked with all major orchestras in New Zealand.
Leonard is a participant in the 2023-2024 Australian Conducting Academy and is excited to conduct all of Australia’s professional orchestras this year. He will also conduct Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore with National Opera and director Peter Coleman-Wright AO, and return to the Auckland Philharmonia in December.
Previously Leonard was the inaugural recipient of the 2021 NSW Orchestral Conducting (Early Career) Fellowship and worked closely with Sydney Youth Orchestras. He studied with Marin Alsop at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where he was named Peabody’s “rising star” and awarded the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s 2020-21 BSO-Peabody Fellowship.
Leonard received the 2020 Mr and Mrs Gerald Frank New Churchill Fellowship and an Ars Musica Australis Arts Fellowship. He was the 2016 Young Canberra Citizen of the Year for Youth Arts and Multimedia and an ACT Finalist for 2016 Young Australian of the Year.