As a concerto soloist Leo has performed in concert tours around Russia, Italy and the UK and recently made his début at London’s world-renowned Wigmore Hall in a performance of Marcello’s Oboe Concerto with Rachel Podger directing. He has toured extensively around Japan, France, Germany, Austria, Norway and the Czech Republic, playing principal oboe with various orchestras and has worked with many noteworthy musicians including Sir John Eliot Gardiner with The English Baroque Soloists, Margaret Faultless with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, David Watkin with The Academy of Ancient Music, Paul McCreesh with The Gabrieli Consort & Players, Ashley Solomon with Florilegium, Trevor Pinnock, Marc Minkowski, and Philippe Herreweghe. Leo was twice awarded second-prize in the prestigious Leila Bull Oboe Competition and was also awarded the Janet Craxton Memorial Prize for outstanding orchestral oboe playing at the Royal Academy of Music. He was recently appointed Principal Oboe of the London Contemporary Orchestra.
Leo began studying the oboe at the age of fifteen with Josephine Lively and subsequently, with Christopher O’Neal. He went on to study with Celia Nicklin, Tess Miller and Emanuel Abbühl whilst furthering his schooling at the Royal Academy of Music. During his studies he took part in masterclasses with Paul Goodwin, Jonathan Kelly, Maurice Bourgue, François Leleux, and Nicholas Daniel.
After finishing his undergraduate course, Leo continued his education at the Historical Performance Department at the Royal Academy of Music, London, studying Baroque Oboe alongside other early oboes with Katharina Sprecklesen and James Eastaway and simultaneously at the Centre Européen de recherche et pratique musicales under the tutelage of Paul Dombrecht and Marcel Ponseele. Historically Informed Performance is the field in which Leo is most active and he has a particular passion for performing the music of the late Romantic period on the appropriate instruments and with the requisite style.
