Trinity Laban

Biographies

Leigh O'Hara completed a music degree at the University of York and continued his piano studies at Trinity Laban with Simon Young, Philip Fowke and David Owen Norris. After this he completed a Masters Degree at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has won first prize in the Weingarten Schumann Competition and has also been awarded the Gertrude Norman Prize and Cross Memorial Scholarship. His conducting teachers have included Peter Stark, Lionel Friend, Michael Rose and, at Canford Summer School, George Hurst and Rodolfo Saglimbeni.

Leigh is Director of Music at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich and for almost 20 years has been resident at Dartington International Summer School where he has performed as soloist and chamber musician as well as coaching chamber music, teaching piano and conducting the orchestral workshop and choral rehearsals. Leigh is musical director of the James Allen Community Orchestra and JAGS Choral Society and has recently been appointed conductor of the first orchestra for the new South London Youth Orchestra which launches in Dulwich this summer. Leigh has been the Musical Director of Blackheath Halls Orchestra since its reinstatement in September 2006, conducting all projects for the orchestra, including the fully staged performances of 'Carmen' and 'La Boheme' and 'Orpheus and Eurydice'.