Leonardo R. Soto, Jr. is the Principal Timpanist of the Houston Symphony, a position he has held since 2018. Before arriving in Houston, Leonardo served as Principal Timpanist of the Charlotte Symphony from 2009 to 2018, and the Detroit Opera House from 2003 to 2009.
Leonardo has the unique distinction of being the first native Hispanic to hold a Principal Timpani position in a major orchestra in the United States.
During his career, Leonardo has been invited as a guest timpanist with orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony Santiago Philharmonic among others. While in Charlotte, he was an active member of NuDeco Ensemble in Miami, and for the past few years, an active member of the Grand Tetons Music Festival Orchestra.
As an educator, Leonardo is a faculty member at the Brevard Music Festival and has guested as a clinician and lecturer at universities such as Northwestern, DePaul, Rice, Denver, North Carolina, Houston, University of Georgia, Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Seoul, and Universidad de Chile. He is also an active coach at Carnegie Hall’s NYO-NYO2, Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, Programa de Orquestas Juveniles de Chile, and a former faculty member at Queens University of Charlotte.
As a soloist, Leonardo made his debut with the Houston Symphony in 2020 and has performed concerti with the Charlotte Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, and the University of North Carolina percussion ensemble. In January 2017 he performed the world premiere of “Evolution Percussion Concerto,” written for him by composer Leonard Mark Lewis.
Mr. Soto began his musical education at the University of Chile and was the recipient of the Teatro Municipal of Santiago National Scholarship. Concurrently, he was trained as a Latin percussionist by his father, Mr. Leonardo Soto, Sr., one of Chile's most prominent musicians. Leonardo embarked on his professional career with the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, where he gained experience in orchestral, opera, and ballet repertoire. In 1997, he received the Fundación Andes International Scholarship, which brought him to the United States where he studied at Carnegie Mellon University under Timothy Adams, then-Timpanist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Later he was made an honorary student at Cleveland State University by Tom Freer, retired percussionist of the Cleveland Orchestra.
