Clemens Leske, the SSSO's soloist on 4th July 2004
in a performance of Grieg's Piano Concerto, is one of
Australia's most distinguished young pianists.
Born in 1970 in Adelaide, Clemens Leske made his debut at age fifteen with conductor Nicholas Braithwaite and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, he later won the ABC's prestigious Young Performer of the Year award. He has since been concerto solist with all of Australia's main symphony orchestras - the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Western Australian, Tasmanian, and Queensland Symphony Orchestras .
Clemens was awarded his B.Mus. (Distinction) at the Juilliard School of Music in New York; he performed there in the Lincoln Center and other venues, and was a soloist in the Focus and Bang-on-a-Can festivals.
While in London he studied with Alfred Brendel and Joseph Zeiger, was a winner of the Royal Overseas Music Competition, the Hattori Award, and toured Spain as concerto soloist with the Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra. For the King of Thailand's birthday concert, he was soloist with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.
In Australia Clemens has given solo recitals for the Australian Society for Keyboard Music, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Monash University, the Barossa Music Festival, Ripponlea House, the Elder Conservatorium, ABC radio broadcasts, and Adelaide Festival Theatre.
Chamber Music experience includes performances
with violinists Christopher Kimber and Donald Hazelwood, cellist
Nathan Waks, the Australian String Quartet and Jane Peters, the
Adelaide Chamber Orchestra, and many violinists and other
instrumentalists in his position as Lecturer in Ensemble Studies
at the Sydney Conservatorium.
He received high praise from Yehudi Menuhin for his performance
in Menuhin's Master Class in Sydney
Last year's engagements included performances of the
Rachmaninov Paganini Variations, Grieg and Tchaikovski piano
concertos with the Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies. In
reviewing an earlier performance of the Grieg Piano
Concerto Laurie Strachan, music critic for The
Australian wrote:
". . exceptionally fine playing, full of power matched with a
delicate, lyrical touch"
and Elizabeth Silsbury of the Adelaide Advertiser said:
"such was his magnetism, the whole house held its collective
breath"