What is Music in May?
Mim brings renowned musicians to Santa Cruz in a weekend full of concerts. Our intent is to expand and broaden the audience of classical music, impact youth, increase awareness of and develop relationships with other local non-profit organizations serving the Santa Cruz community.
Ronald Leonard
Guest Artist
Ronald Leonard has long been acknowledged as one of America’s most highly acclaimed cellists, chamber musicians and teacher. While a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Leonard Rose and Orlando Cole, Mr. Leonard won the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg award. Upon graduation he was invited by George Szell to join the Cleveland Orchestra, a position he held for two years. He was then appointed principal cellist of the Rochester Philharmonic and also joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music. Before joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Principal cellist in 1975, he was a member of the Vermeer Quartet. During his years as principal cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he was presented as soloist with the orchestra many times, performing, to name a few, concertos by Haydn, Dvorak, Elgar, Barber, Shostokovitch, Brahms, Beethoven, Strauss, Tschaikovsky and Prokofiev, with world famous conductors Zubin Mehta, Carl Maria Giulini, Sir Simon Rattle, Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Peka Salonen. Chamber Music has also been a major part of his musical career. While at Eastman he was a member of the Eastman Quartet, spent summers at both Aspen, where he regularly performed with Itzahk Perlman, Pinkus Zuckerman, Claude Frank, and Marlboro, where he collaborated with Rudolph Serkin, Alexander Schneider, Felix Galimir, Jaimie Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt, Richard Goode, Lilian Kalir,Ruth Laredo, Murray Perahia, Walter Ponce, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Pina Carmirelli, Isidore Cohen, Sylvia Rosenberg, Michael Tree, Sandor Vegh, James Dunham, Bruno Giuranna, John Graham, Raphael Hillyer, Jorge Mester, Philip Naegele, Timothy Eddy, Madeline Foley, Yo Yo Ma, Siegfreid Palm, Miklos Perenyi, and many others . He has been involved in the chamber music programs at many festivals, including Aspen, Marlboro, Musicorda, Music Fest, the Australian Music Festival, Reno Chamber Music Festival and the Sarasota Music Festival. He has also been guest artist with the Guarnerius, American, Mendelssohn , Boromeo, and Jiulliard Quartets. Mr. Leonard was an active member in the Hollywood studio scene and can be heard on the sound tracks as soloist in such movies as Witches of Eastwick, Sophies Choice and Snow Falling on Cedars. Regarded as one of the world’s leading pedagogues, Mr. Leonard has held important posts at the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, the Perlman Music Program, Musicorda, UCLA, the Heifitz International Music Festival, USC, where he was the Piatigorsky Professor of Cello, and now the Colburn School, where he teaches cello and chamber music and is conductor of the Colburn Chamber Orchestra. His former students are members of orchestras such as Cleveland, Boston, Cincinnatti, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Buffalo, and many others hold positions in chamber music groups and educational institutions.