Leah Plave & Tong Wang
Biography Leah Plave & Tong Wang
Leah Plave
is an unusual and well travelled artist. Unable to resist any genre besides country western, she goes beyond the traditional role of a cellist, performing not only classical repertoire but electronic, non-western, experimental, contemporary, and early music. She frequently works with living composers and enjoys interdisciplinary, cross-cultural projects. Leah has lived and toured extensively across North America, China, and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborator. By the age of 24, Leah was a four-time immigrant.
A founding member of many chamber ensembles, Leah can be heard performing in spaces ranging from posh concert halls to sticky bars and candle lit living rooms. Before an untimely deportation from Canada, she served as Artistic Director and cellist of the Montréal Music Collective, for which she programmed and performed chamber and solo works by excellent yet under-represented composers in a monthly concert series. Based in the Netherlands since 2020, Leah is an Artist in Residence at Studio LOOS (Den Haag), where her research focuses on music for acoustic cello and live electronics. She has performed with award winning ensembles such as Z4 Piano Quartet, Lincoln Center Stage piano quintet, Linen of Words, Trio Alora, Vratsa Symphony Orchestra (BG), Theresia Orchestra (IT), Jeune Orchestre Rameau (FR), and Vermont Symphony Orchestra (USA). Leah has worked with many acclaimed composers of our time such as Zosha Di Castri, Cris Derksen, David Braid, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Michael Harrison, and Amy Brandon.
Leah recorded her debut album, ‘Impressions: The Rediscovery of Henriette Bosmans’, with her duo partner and cherished friend, Dr. Dan Sato. Praised “an absolute revelation” (Limelight), the album brings to life the complete works for cello and piano by this imaginative Dutch composer. It has been widely broadcast by stations such as PBS, Canada's CBC Radio, Nederlandse Publieke Omroep, and BBC Radio 3. Her next album, ‘black sea, orange tree’, will be released in April 2024 on Leaf Music Label (generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts) and features Fazıl Say’s cello sonata, Four Cities, and Four Impressions of China, a newly commissioned work by Alice Ping Yee Ho. An outspoken advocate for inclusive programming, Leah has been a featured guest speaker for Australia's Curve Magazine Festival and the Berkshire High Peaks Music Festival. She has also performed at many festivals such as FIMU (FR), AngelicA Festival Internazionale di Musica (IT), Sound Art Festival (NL), Thy Chamber Music Festival (DE), The Banff Centre, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (CA), Garth Newel Music Centre (USA), and Manchester Music Festival (USA).
Leah received her Bachelor of Music from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (USA), where she was fortunate to study with Yehuda Hanani. During this period, she also travelled to Hungary, performing actively as a chamber musician and earning a certificate from the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. In 2017, she moved to Canada, where she received a Master Degree from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. Her academic studies concluded in The Netherlands, where she earned a Master Degree in baroque and classical cello performance at the Royal Conservatoire Den Haag.
Leah refuses to participate in social media- a controversial career move which often makes her vulnerable to the unsolicited advice of men on trains. Nevertheless, she gladly spends this spare free time reading literature, hiking through national parks, and experimenting with fermented foods.
Tong Wang
Canadian pianist Tong Wang explores a variety of genres and mediums to bring creative initiatives to the community. As a soloist, Tong has performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Red Deer Symphony Orchestra. She has won awards including the International Chopin Golden Ring Competition, the Canadian Music Competition, and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal of Performing Arts. Among her projects are the interactive performance tours ‘Song of Praise’ and ‘Ghiblilane’, research on the aesthetic of ‘cuteness’ in music, and social entrepreneurship initiatives such as ‘Zenkora Studios’. Tong is a member of the UTAU2, Lincoln Center Stage, and the Global Leaders Cohort. She received BM and MM from the New England Conservatory and McGill University. Tong received grants from the Canada Council and FRQSC for the creation of a new operetta, ‘Labyrinth of Tears’.
