Flutist 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. Some recent exploits include coding tactile electroacoustic installations in Max/MSP, recording a new work for 12 flutists by Julia Wolfe, and performing Stravinsky’s Firebird at Burning Man.

Leo has performed with notable new-music 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 season he is a resident artist at the Annapolis and Lawrence chamber music festivals. Prior to relocating to the Finger Lakes from New York City, Leo directed a multi-genre concert series at a community garden in the East Village and completed a two-year chamber music fellowship with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect.

An experienced teaching artist, Leo maintains a private flute studio and leads creative musicianship workshops at Opus Ithaca School of Music. For several years he taught at DePauw University, where he also co-directed the faculty chamber ensemble and Electronic Experimentation Lab.

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 Erin Lesser, Linda Chesis, Ransom Wilson, and Leslie Chin.