Cellist Leland Philip Ko (b. 1998) is the kind of person who is always asking “why” — American-born but of Chinese-Canadian descent, schooled at both university and conservatory, and extremely thorough in any number of activities ranging from competitive tennis and distance-running to home-baking and origami, he wants to find the similarities between seemingly disparate things, and in doing so hopefully find something human in everything. Above all, Leland does his best to remember advice once given to him that music is about life, not the other way around.
Described as someone with “Disarming charisma” (South Florida Classical Review) yet simultaneously as someone “Byronic” and “excelling in both poetic longing and dramatic outbursts” (Boston Classical Review), Leland 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.
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. Past engagements over the last decade have included concerto appearances with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Princeton University Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and multiple appearances with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Philharmonia, Symphony Pro Musica, the Apollo Ensemble of Boston, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Despite growing up a part of Boston’s strong youth orchestra culture, Leland has sought out chamber music throughout his life, having partaken at Chamber Fest West, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society, Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Yellow barn, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Four Seasons Chamber Music Workshop, and the Perlman Music Program’s Summer Music School and its Chamber Music Workshop. 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 Giovanni Battista Rugeri, Cremona, c. 1710, ex-Denis Vigay, which is on generous loan to him from Canimex Inc.; and professional development activities for Leland are generously supported by Marilyn G. and Joseph B. Schwartz. He resides in Boston, with his 13-year-old cat, Ham.
