Flutist, educator, and arts administrator Leo Sussman grew up playing chamber music in living rooms and gigging with a salsa band in San Francisco. Now based in Ithaca, NY, he delights in breathing life into new music and producing imaginative community-based arts projects that foster conversation and connection.

Prior to relocating to the Finger Lakes, Leo was on faculty at DePauw University and completed a two-year chamber music fellowship with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. In his spare time he enjoys trail running and fiddling around with his own electroacoustic experiments.

Leo earned bachelor’s degrees in flute and physics at Lawrence University, a master’s at Yale, and doctorate at Manhattan School of Music, where his research examined the depiction and performance of monstrosity through music. His principal musical mentors include Linda Chesis, Ransom Wilson, Erin Lesser, and Leslie Chin.