León Bernsdorf

PIANO COLLABORATOR

Summer Music School

León Bernsdorf is a pianist and teaching artist living in Brooklyn, NY. He is the recipient of
numerous international piano competition prizes, such as the Liszt Competition Budapest, Premio
Jaen, Dallas International Piano Competition, and the Boston University and Glenn Gould School
concerto competitions.

León gave his orchestra debut at age 15 in the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, performing Grieg’s piano
concerto with the Hamburg Youth Symphony Orchestra. Further orchestral engagements soon
followed, including the Heidelberg Philharmonic and the Hamburg Camerata. Aside from Germany
and the US, he has performed concerts in Canada, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, China, and Southeast
Asia. Through his success at the Liszt Competition in Budapest in 2016 (3rd Prize), León has
concertized extensively in all parts of Hungary, including solo and orchestra appearances in Budpest,
Eger, Miskolc and many other cities.

After receiving his pre-college diploma from the Andreas Franke Akademie of the
Hochschule Hamburg, León completed his education in North America. He holds Bachelor and
Master of Music degrees from Boston University, as well as an Artist Diploma degree from the
Glenn Gould School in Toronto. He finished his Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) with Professor
Robert McDonald at Juilliard in May 2023. His dissertation, "Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Piano Works:
A Critical Guide", is the first English thesis on the composer's piano music and was published by the
Juilliard School.

In recent years, León has focused his musical attention on collaborating and teaching. At Juilliard, he
works with the studios of Carol Rodland (viola), Laurie Smukler (violin), and Amy Burton (voice).
Together with his duo partner, Jeremy Lap Hei Hao (violin), he won the Premio Amici della Musica
Verona (Italy) in Fall 2023 and returned to Italy for the prize winners' concert in early 2025.

As a teaching artist, León has worked in several capacities, most recently as part-time faculty in
music history at Juilliard, a post which he will continue in the 2025-26 school year.