LYDIA LEONG
Violinist and Geek of Many Interests
A MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY
Lydia Leong began playing the violin at the age of five, via the Suzuki Method. Her principal childhood teachers were Lee Joiner, professor of violin at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, and Philadelphia Orchestra violinist Arnold Grossi. At ten, she became the concertmaster of a middle-school-age youth symphony, and subsequently accumulated more than a dozen years of experience as the concertmaster or principal 2nd violinist in multiple youth symphonies (including the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra), volunteer orchestras, and pit orchestras. She minored in music history at the University of Pennsylvania, and did some professional freelancing, but took a nearly 20-year hiatus from the violin in order to focus on her career in IT.
Lydia joined the Montgomery Philharmonic in 2013 after relocating to Maryland from Silicon Valley and resuming playing the violin. She has been the Montgomery Philharmonic’s concertmaster since 2016, with whom she has previously been featured as the violin soloist in Vaughan-Williams's The Lark Ascending, Glazunov's Violin Concerto, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and Bach's Brandenburg Concertos No. 4 and 5, along with giving the US premiere of Felipe Tellez's Romanza for violin and orchestra.
Lydia is also very active as a chamber musician, performing in multiple Friday Morning Music Club and other local chamber-series recitals each season. In the pre-pandemic season, she performed the violin sonatas of Cesar Franck and Richard Strauss at Strathmore Mansion and other venues across the region. More recently, her performances have featured the repertoire of diverse composers, such as William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Piano. She is the first violinist in a clarinet quintet, the River Quarry Ensemble, and routinely performs works for string quartet. She is also interested in piano trio and piano quintet opportunities. She attends summer chamber music camps when her schedule permits.
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During the summers, Lydia coaches middle- and high-school string players in the Montgomery Philharmonic's Youth Chamber Music Festival. She has attended Suzuki courses with teacher trainers Ronda Cole, Ann Montzka-Smelser, David Strom, and Cathryn Lee. She has also completed all available O'Connor Method training with Mark O'Connor.
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Lydia has had the privilege of continuing to receive instruction from many sources. Through Montgomery Philharmonic's masterclass program, she's participated in coaching from Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jonathan Carney. She received concertmaster coaching from Annapolis Symphony concertmaster Netanel Draiblate. She also has worked with a variety of chamber music coaches, including members of the Aeolus Quartet through the DC Chamber Musicians program. She presently studies the violin privately with Emil Chudnovsky.
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During the pandemic, Lydia took up Scottish Fiddling, joining the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club and Fiddle Orchestra online, as well as the Potomac Valley Scottish Fiddle Club. She studies Scottish fiddle privately with champion fiddler Sean Heely. She was a prizewinner in summer 2021 and 2022 competitions, including qualifying for and competing in the US National Scottish Fiddling championship both years.
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Lydia is currently a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, a global IT research and advisory firm. She was named a Top 10 Cloud Influencer and Thought Leader by WIRED, and is a frequently-quoted expert on cloud computing.