Leland Ko

Leland Ko has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues across America and abroad, from Carnegie Hall in New York and Symphony Hall in Boston to the Maison Symphonique in Montréal; and internationally in Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Israel, Spain, Korea, and Hong Kong. He is a first prize winner of the Concours Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Concert Artists Guild Louis and Susan Meisel Competition, and the Walter W. Naumburg International Cello Competition, and is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient.

Highlights for Leland’s 2025-2026 season include appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke and the DuPage Symphony; recitals at the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, Pro Musica San Miguel de Allende, Pepperdine University, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; and chamber music for the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall, Palm Beach State College, and Chico Performances.

Leland’s love for chamber music has also led him to be a former Artist in Residence of New York Piano Society (NYPS), and former Music Director of Opus 21, a student-run chamber music collective at Princeton. He is the cellist of Trio Rai, the OAK Trio, the Phaidros Quartet, and also a frequent member of Sejong Soloists.

Leland was a long-time student of Kirsten Peltz, Ronald Lowry, and Paul Katz before attending Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. in German Literature. He went on to complete an M.M. at The Juilliard School under the teaching of Minhye Clara Kim, Timothy Eddy, and Natasha Brofsky, and then earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory under guidance of Laurence Lesser, Yeesun Kim, and Donald Weilerstein. Leland performs on a cello by Pietro Guarneri of Venice, c. 1728-30, and a bow by Dominique Peccatte, both of which are on generous loan to him from Canimex Inc. He resides in Boston, with his 14-year-old cat, Ham.