COLLABORATION
AN ARTIST’S APPROACH
The diverse professional activities of Colombian born conductor, musicologist, and pedagogue, Dr. César Leal, often intersect. His interest in interdisciplinarity and collaboration inform his scholarly and artistic projects and reflect his passion for teaching as well as his love for Liberal Arts education.
Leal’s research interests include music and culture during fin-de-siècle Paris, Franco-American artistic interactions, soundscapes, Jewish patronage and modernism, Latin American cultural identities in the U.S., and race, class, and gender relations in music. He received the prestigious Kennedy Fellowship, which supported his scholarly and creative projects between 2017-2019.
His musicological output involves scholarly (peer-reviewed) publications as well as interdisciplinary creative projects. He has presented scholarly papers in the U.S., Canada, Greece, Japan, Italy, France, England, Peru, Colombia, and Switzerland. In 2018, Leal was invited by Musikproduktion Hoeflich to join the project Repertoire Explorer Series, for which he produces introductory essays for new editions of works by Parisian composers of fin-de-siècle Paris such as Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Pierné, and Camille Chevillard.
In 2018, Leal collaborated with Greg Pond (visual artist), Banning Bouldin (choreographer), Jessica Usherwood (soprano), and Charles Stehno (computer programmer) in the interdisciplinary project Guncotton, which received the 2018 ArtPrize award. His scholarly contributions include “Écouter le Scandale et la Transgression: Les Modèles Révisionnistes de l’Histriographie Musicale Basés sur l’Étude Du Paysage Sonore” (Nîmes: Lucie Éditions, 2015), and “Sponsoring and Constructing Modernism: Jewish Patronage, Entrepreneurs, and Cultural Mediation in Paris during Fin-de-siècle” (forthcoming—Ad Parnasum). Currently Leal and recognized musicologist Diana Hallman are editing a collection of essays entitled “America in the French Imaginary.”

SCHEDULE
PAST AND FUTURE PROGRAMS
Spring 2023
| Research
02.27-28.23
| Guest Conductor
Forest View Educational Center, Arlington, IL
ILMEA Festival Orchestra
01.03-14.23
| International Tour
Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra
12.09.22
Adjudication
Dickinson College – Carlisle, PA
Dickinson College Concerto Competition
12.02.22
| Conservatory Concert
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Pines of Rome
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra
11.17-19.22
| Guest Conductor
Carlisle, PA
PMEA, Cumberland County Orchestra Festival
11.09-13.22
New Orleans, LA
AMS-SMT National Meeting
Hallman, Diana R. and César A. Leal, eds.
America in the French Imaginary 1789-1914:Revolution, Race, and
Musical Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century.
Boydell & Brewer, 2022
11.08.22
| Guest Clinician
PMEA District 12
“Authenticity and Diversity in Orchestral Programming and
Performance.”
11.04.22
| Envage Concert
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
09.30.22
| Guest Speaker
University of Kentucky – Lexington, Kentucky
Musicology and Ethnomusicology Lecture Series
Presentation: “Cakewalking in Paris 1880-1920: Visions of African
American Culture”
09.23.22
| Conservatory Concert
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Concierto! Hommage to Hispanic Heritage Month
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra
09.16.22
| Concerto Competition
Paul Recital Hall – Schmucker Hall – Gettysburg College
08.22-26.22
| Paper Presentation
Athens, Greece
Quinquennial Congress of the International Musicology Society
Session: Impresarios, Agents, Touring Companies
“New Representations and Context of African American Culture
during fin-de-siècle France”

04.23.22
| Opera
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Gondoliers
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra and Opera Workshop
Gilbert and Sullivan
04.22.22
| Opera
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Gondoliers
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra and Opera Workshop
Gilbert and Sullivan
03.26.22
| EnVaGe Concert
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Scheherazade
Ensemble of Variable Geometry (EnVaGe)
Works by Carreño, López-Gavilan, and Rimsky-Korsakov
03.11.22
| Recording Session
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Guaguancó
Ensemble of Variable Geometry (EnVaGe)
Guido López-Gavilán
03.10.22
| Recording Session
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Guaguancó
Ensemble of Variable Geometry (EnVaGe)
Guido López-Gavilán
03.09.22
| Recording Session
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College
Guaguancó
Ensemble of Variable Geometry (EnVaGe)
Guido López-Gavilán
02.23.22
| PMEA Concert
Dallastown, PA
PMEA (Pennsylvania Music Educators Association)
Districts 7 and 8
Works by Borodin, Adams, Roustom, and Márquez
02.18.22
| Conservatory Concert
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College – Livestream Available
Voices
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra
Featuring American Premiere of Marie Jaëll Cello concerto
(Sebastién Hurtaud, cello and artist in residence)
01.07.22
| Paper Presentation
Modern Language Association Annual Meeting
Washington, DC
Session: Studies in Music and Theater
“The Cakewalk and Parisian Visions of Black America“
12.03.21
| Conservatory Concert
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College – Livestream Available
Concerto Competition Winners
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra
Works by Roustom, Vaughan Williams, Vivaldi, and Schubert
11.19.21
| Paper Presentation
Friday Forum – Gettysburg College
“Cakewalking in Paris: New Representations and Contexts
of African American Culture”
11.11.21
| Paper Presentation
American Musicological Society Annual Meeting
Session: Dance Narratives
“Cakewalking in Paris: New Representations and Contexts
of African American Culture”
11.10.21
Jewish Music Forum: A Project of the ASJM
Registration is free and available online.
Jewishness, Jewish Identity and Music Culture in 19th Century
Europe
11.07.21
| Adjudication
Alabama All-State Orchestra Auditions – Virtual
11.06.21
| Adjudication
Alabama All-State Orchestra Auditions – Virtual
10.07.21
| Conservatory Concert
Majestic Theater – Gettysburg College – Livestream Available
Together
Sunderman Conservatory Orchestra
Works by Bruckner, Satie, Ginastera, Stravinsky, and Bermúdez
09.17.21
| Concerto Competition
Paul Recital Hall – Schmucker Hall – Gettysburg College
Livestream Available
08.20.21
| Adjudication
Stevenson High School – Chicago, IL
Stevenson Concerto Competition
08.19.21
| Conducting Workshop
Stevenson High School – Chicago, IL
Stevenson Strings
08.19.21
| Conducting Workshop
Stevenson High School – Chicago, IL
Stevenson Strings
