Biography

Canadian violinist Kerson Leong has been called “not just one of Canada’s greatest violinists but one of the greatest violinists, period” (Toronto Star). Le Monde described his playing as “a mixture of spontaneity and mastery, elegance, fantasy, intensity that makes his sound recognizable from the first notes.” Leong came to international attention by winning Junior First Prize at the Menuhin Competition 2010 in Oslo. For the 2018-2019 season he was Artist-in-Residence with Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, hand-picked by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. A natural communicator on and off the stage, his passions include music outreach and pedagogy. Of his latest recording (Britten and Bruch concertos), The Strad wrote that “Leong has the required flair and technique, but everything speaks with sincerity.” Possibly the highest accolade that can be given an artist comes from Toronto Symphony concertmaster Jonathan Crow: “There aren’t as many people where you turn on the radio and say ‘Oh, that’s Heifetz’ or ‘Oh, that’s Menuhin’. But with Kerson? I could turn on the radio and say ‘Oh yeah, that’s Kerson playing’ … Nobody else sounds like him.” Leong performs on the “ex Bohrer, Baumgartner” Guarneri del Gesù violin. 2nd LMMC concert.

Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. His prizes and awards include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, prizes at the Honens, Cleveland, and Dublin competitions, and winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions as well as the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Vonsattel is Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. LMMC debut.

Robert Markow

https://kersonleong.com/

https://www.gillesvonsattel.com/

Notes

Programme notes will be available two weeks before the concert.