ABOUT ME
Hailed as a musician of 'sophistication and elegance,' Australian-Chinese pianist, Dr Theresa Leung, has distinguished herself as soloist, collaborative pianist and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Australia. She is currently the Collaborative Piano Discipline Leader and full-time Lecturer in Collaborative Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Regularly sought after as a pedagogue, Dr Leung recently completed a three-week teaching residency at Le Conservatoire royal de Liège, Belgium (supported by a grant from the L'Académie de Recherche et d'Enseignement supérieur), as well as a Collaborative Piano Masterclass at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, UK. Prior to her appointment at the Sydney Conservatorium, Dr Leung enjoyed a performing and teaching career in North America for 12 years, including as Visiting Assistant Professor and Post-doctoral Scholar at Indiana University where she was a founding member of the Chamber and Collaborative Music Department.
As a performer, Dr Leung is frequently invited to collaborate with instrumentalists, including members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. These include recent performances with Alexandra Osborne (A/Concertmaster, Sydney
Symphony), Jonathan Ramsay (Principal Trombone, Berlin Phil) and Sasha Romero (Principal Trombone, Met Orch). Other collaborations include those with Richard Svoboda and Robert Sheena of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and trio performances for the Boston Wind Society's Double Reed Day with Sheena and Richard Ranti (BSO). Festival appearances include: Kneisel Hall Chamber Music (USA), the Music Academy of the West (USA), the Banff Centre (Canada), Orford Arts Centre (Canada), the Bad Bertrich and Murrhardt Piano Festivals (Germany), among others. She has also worked at the Killington Summer Music Festival (USA), as Chamber Music faculty and Staff Pianist. As a chamber musician, she was a founding member of the prize-winning American-based ensemble, Trio Auloi. Dr Leung also maintains a working-partnership with Canadian violinist, Jae-won Bang, of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and performs in 'Duo Leung' with Dutch/Australian-trained Classical Saxophonist and Yamaha Artist, Dr Peter Leung, which toured the East Coast and Midwest USA giving performances and master classes shortly before the Covid outbreak.
In addition to her recent positions at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Indiana University, Dr Leung has held tertiary-level positions in the USA, including as Coorindator of the Piano for Non-Majors Program and Collaborative Piano Coach at New England Conservatory, Boston. She has played as a Collaborative Pianist in the studios of Donald Weilerstein (vln), the late Roger Tapping (vla), Joel Smirnoff (vln), Laurence Lesser (vlc), Paul Katz (vlc), Kim Kashkashian (vla), Robert Vernon (vla), Malcolm Lowe (vln), Kathleen McLean (bs), Otis Murphy (sax), William Preucil (vln), James Campbell (cl), and Eli Eban (cl), among others. She was also a Staff Pianist at the Cleveland Music Settlement and NEC Preparatory School.
Dr Leung completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano at New England Conservatory (Boston, USA), Master of Music in Collaborative Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music (USA), and Artist Diploma in Solo Piano at the Glenn Gould School (Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada). Her primary teachers included Vivian Hornik Weilerstein (to whom she was a Teaching Assistant), Cameron Stowe, Jonathan Feldman, Virginia Weckstrom and the late John Perry. Additional Piano studies with the late Leon Fleisher, Marc Durand, Daniel Shapiro, David Louie and Jacques Rouvier, and additional Chamber Music studies with Peter Salaff, Richard Svoboda, Merry Peckham, Seymour Lipkin, and members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, Borromeo and Cavani String Quartets.