Pianist Sonia Leong’s playing has been described as “richly colorful and tender…she balances intelligence and sensitivity, revealing the depths of each score”. (St.Galler Tagblatt, Switzerland)  The San Francisco Classical Voice described her “sensitive and accomplished touch” and wrote, “Leong…played the brilliant piano part effortlessly and with a great deal of flair”. 

 

Sonia has performed as both a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in Mexico, Hong Kong, Switzerland, England, and Romania. She has appeared with the Filarmonica de Stat Dinu Lipatti in Satu Mare, Romania, the St. John and Zion Chamber Orchestras in Stockton, the Banff Festival Orchestra, and the Stockton Symphony; and performed live on Radio Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland. She recently gave the North American premiere of Dora Pejačević’s Phantasie Concertante with the Stockton Symphony. 

 

As a founding member of Trio 180, Sonia has given concerts and worked with young musicians throughout the Americas. The trio has commissioned works by many composers, including Chen Yi, Robert Greenberg, Cindy Cox, Reinaldo Moya, Richard Einhorn, Dorothy Chang, and Andrew Conklin. The trio’s first album, featuring works by Dvořák, Suk, and Schumann, was released in 2015. 

 

Sonia also collaborates frequently with violinist Ann Miller, with whom she released the album Perspectives on Light and Shadow in December of 2015. The album Metamorphosis, with bassoonist Nicolasa Kuster, was released in 2013.

 

On faculty at University of the Pacific since 2001, Sonia’s students have attended graduate programs throughout the US and Canada, and have gone on to careers as music therapists, piano pedagogues, collaborative pianists, and performers. 

 

Sonia grew up in Saskatoon, Canada, and studied at the University of British Columbia, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Université de Montréal, as well as at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) on a Commonwealth Scholarship, where she received a Concert Recital Diploma. Her principal teachers include Robert Silverman, Julian Martin, Alexander Volkov, and Marc Durand.

 

In her spare time, Sonia enjoys baking pastries, traveling, reading, paddleboarding and playing with her puppy, Gus.