BIOGRAPHY

   Leanne Rees, from California's Santa Clara Valley began her piano studies at the age of 4.  She soloed with the San Jose Symphony Orchestra with Gastone Usigli at the age of 9 and with conductor Sandor Salgo of the Bach Festival Orchestra at the age of 13, returning as an adult to perform with conductor George Cleve.  A graduate of Stanford University, she continued her piano study with pianist/composer Allen Ferguson and later with Sylvia Jenkins and Adolph Baller, and in Washington D.C. with Thomas Mastroianni.  She has performed extensively in California.  Since moving to the Washington D. C. area, Ms. Rees has performed with numerous chamber ensembles and was honored by Washingtonian Magazine as one of twenty-eight leading women performers.

     A trailblazer in the development of works by women composers, Leanne Rees researched, commissioned and performed works of women throughout the United States and Europe.  She performed with the National Symphony for the opening of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC; in the Dumbarton Concert Series; at the Embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany and India; for the International Monetary Fund; the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center; the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in South Carolina; the Anderson House and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and at colleges and universities throughout the US.  She was a featured artist for the Steinway Society Bay Area concert series at San Jose's Le Petit Trianon Theatre.  She performed at the Villa Montalvo, the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, and at the San Jose Civic Auditorium in California.  She performed at the Palace Theatre in Hilo, Hawaii.  And, Leanne played to an enthusiastic full house at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

     Leanne Rees has composed the music for a theatrical production of Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, as well as a two-piano arrangement of Love Songs by Cole Porter and Jerome Kern, and an electronic piece called Moonscape and Reflections--Nocturne for Two Pianos which was premiered in the summer of 2016 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  Her composition for piano, Funky Tango, was chosen to be presented in concert by The Capital Composers Alliance in Washington D. C.  Leanne's recordings include Music by American Women Composers by Bravura Recordings and Women Composers and the Men in Their Lives, which was released under the Fleur de Son Classics label and made it to the final ballot for a Grammy Award.  Her latest CD Crosswinds: Classical & Jazz, also under the Fleur de Son Classical label, is a collection of classical jazz greats. The Washington Post classical music critic, the late Joseph McLellan, describes Ms. Rees as a ". . . fluent . . . expressive . . . technically proficient performer . . . ."