Bio:

Leanna is a native of Sydney, Australia, where she began her piano studies at age six and violin studies at age eight. At age 11, she performed the Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26 (“Coronation”) with the East West Symphony in Sydney, under the baton of Henryk Pisarek. Leanna has also soloed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and was invited to play at the City of Sydney Cultural Council Outstanding Performer’s Concert in April 2008. She has placed in several Australian competitions and is a two-time winner of Sydney’s “Theme and Variations” Outstanding Pianist Award and a three-time finalist for the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer’s Award. In 2006, Leanna was one of three students honored by the Cultural Council at the Sydney McDonald’s Arts Challenge. She made an appearance at the Sydney Opera House as a result of being awarded third place in the 2007 national Australian Higher School Certificate Music Extension course. In 2008 Leanna won the Werner Baer Memorial Award and the audience prize in the Cochem International Piano Summer Festival in Germany. Most recently, Leanna participated at the Banff International Piano Master-Classes in Canada and the Sarasota Summer Music Festival in Florida.
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Leanna studied with Margaret Hair in Australia and has made several appearances performing in the United States, Canada, Germany, Asia and Russia. She has also performed in master classes for Marc Durand, Gary Graffman, Robert Levin, Susan Starr, Jacques Rouvier, Richard Raymond and Sarkis Baltaian. Previously, Leanna attained a Bachelor of Music at The Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, California, where she studied with John Perry. At The Colburn School, she was selected to be a Teaching Fellow, through which she had several young private students. She was also selected as a Teaching Assistant at Boston University, where she pursued her Masters of Music Degree at Boston University with Professor Boaz Sharon. She studied with Professor Anton Nel and was awarded a Teaching Assistantship at the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated with her Doctorate of Musical Arts.