From Weston to the world: Classical cellist carves his own path

It’s been a busy summer for cello virtuoso Leland Ko.

The 27-year-old briefly popped back home to Weston from summer concert appearances in Europe before setting out for another round of international gigs. This fall will take him to Slovenia, South Korea and Canada, before he returns to the states for performances in New York, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City at the end of the year.

“It’s a dream to be playing now, and I remind myself of that every day,” he said. “There’s always stress and pressure but it’s a dream life and I hope I don’t forget that.”

Musical roots began in Weston

Ko’s introduction to the string instrument came at age 3 at the behest of his mother Sara.

“I was a restless child,” he said.“She thought it would focus me.”

His older brother Nathan played the violin, so his mother chose the cello for Leland, “and the cello stuck.” He started playing a small instrument appropriate for his size, and never stopped.

He and Nathan played together years ago. Some of his earliest memories are playing with his brother.

“We were in a piano trio at one point, and I remember sharing the stage with him for his high school graduation recital, which was a very special experience,” he said.

He started taking lessons at the Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, and is still in touch with his former teachers. He has high praise for the teachers at the conservatory.

“They were kind to me; teaching a 3-year-old something as complicated as the cello and they made me love it,” said Ko.

It didn’t hurt, he said, that his teachers rewarded him with little Thomas the Tank Engine train cars for his good work.

By age 12, Ko got his first full-size cello, and began to spread his musical wings. He studied at the Rivers Conservatory from 2002 to 2014 while attending the Weston public schools, graduating from Weston High School in 2016.

Ko particularly enjoys playing chamber music, “Probably because a lot of my mentors growing up were either professional string quartet musicians or piano trio musicians,” he said.

“There’s a very special intimacy and way of listening that chamber music creates.”

He considers himself fortunate to have played in youth orchestras, including the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. He’s been on tours to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.

“There’s nothing like being surrounded by 100 other young people pouring their hearts into their instruments and being completely enveloped in sound,” he said.

He entered competitions with other Boston-area musicians and made friends.

One of his earliest performances came after winning a competition where the prize was an appearance with the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra.

“It was a great thing for kids to play with an orchestra,” he said. “We all just wanted to make music together.”

College was a defining period in Ko’s life. Though he wanted to attend a music school, his family felt getting a liberal arts degree would be more beneficial, so he enrolled at Princeton University and spent four years practicing on his own, developing his craft, but avoiding classes in music or playing in a student orchestra.

He graduated Princeton just as the pandemic hit in March 2020, shuttering schools and businesses all over the country. He applied to the master’s program at the renowned Juilliard School in New York City and spent his first year learning and playing online.

“It was terrible,” said Ko. “Playing on Zoom versus live is like calling a friend versus seeing them in person.”

But Ko said he felt lucky that he could be in a graduate program during the pandemic since “performers’ careers were destroyed,” as concert dates shut down.

That period allowed him to build his musical life from scratch, “just like everyone else.”

“I’m still building it bit by bit,” said Ko.

Heroes emerge from surprising places

Somewhat surprisingly, his musical heroes are not cellists. Ko played tennis through college and he most admires tennis idols Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

He said Federer “had a way of becoming one with the sport to the point it felt like he was communicating with us through his tennis.”

“It was like a religious experience watching him play and it inspires me in the kind of musician I want to be,” said Ko.

He likes Nadal’s “attitude of always trying to do something better every day as well as his humility of knowing that no one person is larger than the sport.”

After Juilliard, he pursued an artist diploma from the New England Conservatory’s Institute for Concert Artists.

“There were no classes; it was performance based,” he said, “an opportunity just to be heard.” He performed at the Conservatory from 2022-2024.

Coming up for Ko

This fall, Ko will perform classical programs that showcase his “disarming charisma,” as described by the South Florida Classical Review. He will have several local performances in Boston at the New England Conservatory.

He said the Greater Boston area, as well as New England as a whole, is uniquely supportive of the arts.

“They value culture here, they value the arts,” said Ko.

To learn more about Ko and his upcoming performance schedule, visit lelandko.com.