Who I am…
Leland Philip Ko (1998- ) is the kind of person who’s always had an overflow of energy. His restlessness has led him to various callings, from competitive tennis and distance running to calligraphy and origami, but so far he’s found that making music with and for others — and the process that goes into that — are the things that best focus his mind, and that this restlessness is what gives him an almost stubborn desire to experience something with his audiences and colleagues every time he walks out on stage. Though he has chosen to dedicate himself to classical music, he does his best to remember and live by a former mentor’s advice that music is about life, not the other way around.
A cellist of Chinese-Canadian descent, yet born and raised in the Boston area, Leland has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues across America’s east coast, such as Merkin Concert Hall and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York, and Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, and Sanders Theatre in Boston, as well as internationally in Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Israel, and Spain, including Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada. Violinist Itzhak Perlman has described Leland as someone that “plays with the beauty of sound and subtlety that we don’t often encounter in a cellist of his age,” someone who is “a musician who willingly considers all aspects of music.” Leland was named a recipient of the Presidential Scholar Award at New England Conservatory for 2022-2024 and the Spark Fund from The Joy of Music Inc., and was a Young Artist in Residence for American Public Media’s radio program Performance Today in 2023. He also holds claim to a second prize at the inaugural 2020 Bader and Overton Canadian Cello Competition, first prize at the 2021 Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, third prize at the 2024 Windsor Festival International String Competition, and most recently won first prizes at the 2023 inaugural Boston Concert Artist Society auditions, the 2023 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition, the 2023 Hong Kong Generation Next Arts International Music Competition, and the 2023 Concours OSM, and was named a winner of the 2023 Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank auditions.
The 2023-2024 season sees Leland making appearances with the OSM under Tomaš Netopil, the NEC Philharmonia under Hugh Wolff, the Symphony Pro Musica under Mark Churchill, the Apollo Ensemble of Boston under Elias Miller; recitals in Jordan Hall, for the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, at the Chautauqua Institute, and as part of his first ever recital tour across Arkansas; and chamber music with Wellesley Chamber Players, the Clark Chamber Series with Trio Rai, and at the Goethe Institute in Boston with the Borromeo Quartet. Past engagements over the last decade have included concerto appearances with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Arlington Philharmonic, the Brockton Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Pro Musica, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Princeton University Orchestra, the Adelphi Orchestra, and multiple appearances with the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra.
Despite growing up a part of Boston’s strong youth orchestra culture and occasionally appearing as a guest member with orchestras like the Boston Ballet or touring with Sejong Soloists in New York and Korea, Leland has sought out chamber music throughout his life, having attended Yellowbarn, Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, Four Seasons Chamber Music Workshop, and the Perlman Music Program’s Summer Music School and its Chamber Music Workshop. Through these festivals, Leland has had the chance to study with and occasionally perform alongside artists such as Ronald Leonard, Merry Peckham, Joel Krosnick, Donald Weilerstein, Vivian Weilerstein, Roger Tapping, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Marcy Rosen, Ralph Kirshbaum, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Ida Kavafian, Ara Gregorian, and Itzhak Perlman. Leland’s love for chamber music has also led him to be a former Artist in Residence of New York Piano Society (NYPS), and former Music Director of Opus 21, a student-run chamber music collective at Princeton. As of September 2023, he is the cellist of Trio Rai.
Leland was a long-time student of Ronald Lowry and Paul Katz before attending Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. in German Literature. He went on to complete an M.M. at The Juilliard School under the teaching of Minhye Clara Kim, Timothy Eddy, and Natasha Brofsky, and is currently an Artist Diploma candidate at the New England Conservatory under guidance of Yeesun Kim and Donald Weilerstein. He plays a Spanish cello ca. 1769 attributed to Juan Guillami and nicknamed “El Tiburón,” and a bow ca. 1830 by Jean Dominique Adam, both on generous loan from the Canada Council. He resides in Boston, with his 11-year-old cat, Ham.
Updated as of September 2023.