Dr. Jose Leonardo Leon

Dr. Jose Leonardo Leon
DMA, University of Colorado Boulder
Visiting Assistant Professor

Areas of Expertise
Trombone, Arts Entrepreneurship

Email: leonj@fau.edu
Office Phone: 561.297.3820

Dr. Jose Leon

Dr. Jose Leonardo Leon is one of South Florida’s most active and versatile Bass and Tenor Trombonists and educators. Leon has worked with professional organizations and artists such as the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra (Spain), the Orquesta Filarmonica UNAM (Mexico City), the Jalisco Philharmonic (Mexico), the New World Symphony (Miami), Andrea Bocelli, The Manhattan Transfer, Wicked and Frozen super star Idina Menzel, Arturo Sandoval, Wycliffe Gordon, Bob Mintzer, Paquito D’ Rivera, Eddie Daniels, 2015 Latin Grammy winner recording album Dr. Ed Calle presents Mamblue, and most recently with the Disney’s Star Wars In Concert Franchise, David Foster and the Kravis Center Pops Orchestra.

In 2018, he released his first album entitled Journey utilizing the Bass Trombone as both a solo and chamber instrument, receiving the 2018 Global Music Award Outstanding Achievement medal for Instrumentalist and Original Compositions by American and Latin American composers.

Some of Dr. Leon’s international festivals, conferences, performances, and residencies include visits to institutions and countries such as the University of Arkansas, University of Costa Rica School of the Arts, the Alabama Bandmasters Association Low Brass Day, the 2016 URUBRASS Summit Uruguay, the 2015 ITF in Spain, the 2012 and 2013 editions of the International Trombone Week at the Universities of Oaxaca and Aguascalientes, Mexico, the 2011 JEN Conference in New Orleans, and the Carlos Chavez National Youth Orchestra’ Academic Week in Mexico City (Mexico) 2010. Dr. Leon’s career started at the internationally acclaimed “Simon Bolivar” Symphony Orchestras of Venezuela known as “El Sistema”.  

Along with FAU, Dr. Leon is an Adjunct Professor of Music Appreciation at Broward College, and a Trombone Artist-in-Residence at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts.

Dr. Leon received his Bachelor of Music at Florida International University, a Master at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, and most recently his Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music. Currently, Jose L. Leon plays tenor and bass trombones with the Florida Grand Opera, the Palm Beach Symphony, and the Symphony of the Americas. Dr. Leon is a Bach Brass & Conn-Selmer Artist. For more information, visit www.joseleonardoleon.com