Kerson Leong gained international recognition in 2010 at the age of 13 when he won the Junior First Prize at the Menuhin Competition in Oslo. He recently won the Young Soloist Prize 2015 of the Radios Francophones Publiques. He is also the First Prize winner of the Stepping Stone 2014 and a five time Grand Prize winner (2005-2009) at the Canadian Music Competition. In 2013, he won the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary Competition, as well as First Prize at the 2013 OSM Standard Life Competition. Kerson has been named Revelation Radio-Canada 2014-2015 for classical music.
He has appeared as soloist around the world with such ensembles as the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, I Solisti Veneti, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitain, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Notable performance highlights include a special Christmas performance of Mozart concerto No. 4 at the Quirinale Palace in Italy for the Italian President, a special appearance at the prestigious Kavli Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, his solo debut with orchestra at the NCPA Concert Hall in Beijing, China, and performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with his cellist brother Stanley, and orchestra in Los Angeles. An avid chamber musician, he has also performed at many international music festivals, including the Bergen Music Festival in Norway, the Menuhin Gstaad Festival in Switzerland, the Trasimeno Music and the Assisi in the World Festivals in Italy, the Rheingau Music, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the Fraenkische Musiktage Festivals in Germany, and the Ottawa International Chamber Music, Music and Beyond, OSM Virée classique, and the Domaine Forget International Music Festivals in Canada. In 2013, as a Laureate of Concertino Praga, he represented Radio Canada on a performance tour at the South Bohemian Festival in the Czech Republic. He has been featured on CBC Television, CBC/Radio Canada, the BBC Radio 3, Radio France, American Public Media’s SymphonyCast, NRK, RAI, Deutschlandradio Kultur, and Czech Radio. In the 2014/2015 season, he has made his debut at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris. He will be making his debut at Wigmore Hall in London and will be featured on Belgian and Swiss radio.
Kerson’s development as a violinist and artist has been largely influenced by Jonathan Crow and Laurence Kayaleh. He was recently awarded the Paul Merkelo Scholarship and has also received a Mentorship Award from the Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation of China.
He performs on the 1691 ‘ex Auer’ Stradivarius, a Francois Peccatte bow and a modern Francois Malo bow, courtesy of Canimex Inc, Drummondville (Quebec), Canada.