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.

Recent exploits include co-creating a chamber opera about a lake monster, throwing a centennial bash for composer Luciano Berio (come for the cake, stay for the Sequenzas!), and serving as namesake for a scrumptious cabbage entrée at the finest pub in rural Indiana.

Leo has performed with groups including Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble X, and SEM Ensemble, and he is one half of the wind/string duo Breakfast Calculus. During the summer he is a resident artist at the Annapolis and Lawrence chamber music festivals.

An experienced teaching artist, Leo enjoys designing interactive performances and creative musicianship workshops for communities outside the concert hall. He is on faculty at Opus Ithaca School of Music and previously taught at DePauw University. Leo also serves as Managing Director of Summertrios, an organization providing immersive workshops for amateur chamber musicians of all levels.

Leo studied flute and physics at Lawrence University, earned graduate degrees at Yale and Manhattan School of Music, and completed a fellowship with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. His doctoral research and subsequent creative work explore how musical depictions of monstrosity deepen our understanding of concepts like hybridity, otherness, and the porous boundaries of humankind.