Leonardo R. Soto
Leonardo R. Soto, Jr. is the Principal Timpanist of the Houston Symphony a position he has held since 2018. Before arriving to Houston, Leonardo served as Principal Timpanist of the Charlotte Symphony from 2009 to 2018, and the Detroit Opera House from 2003 to 2009.
Leonardo has the unique distinction of being the first native Hispanic Timpanist to play in a major orchestra in the United States.
Leonardo's Adams Gear
During his career Leonardo has been invited as guest timpanist with orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony among others, while in Charlotte he was an active member of NuDeco Ensemble in Miami, and for the past few years an active member of the Grand Tetons Music Festival Orchestra.
As an educator Leonardo is faculty member at the Brevard Music Festival and has guest as clinician and lecturer at Universities such as Northwestern, DePaul, Rice, Denver, North Carolina, Houston, University of Georgia, Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia, Bolivia, Puerto Rico and Universidad de Chile. As well as active coach at Carnegie Hall’s NYO NYO2, Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, Programa de Orquestas Juveniles de Chile and former faculty member at Queens University of Charlotte.
As a soloist Leonardo made his debut with the Houston Symphony in 2020 and has performed concerti with the Charlotte Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, University of North Carolina percussion ensemble. In January 2017 he performed the world premiere of “Evolution Percussion Concerto,” written for him by composer Leonard Mark Lewis.
Mr Soto began his musical education at the University of Chile and was the recipient of the Teatro Municipal of Santiago National Scholarship. Concurrently, he was trained as a Latin percussionistby his father, Mr. Leonardo Soto, Sr., one of Chile's most prominent musicians in the field. Leonardo embarked on his professional career with the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, where he gained experience in orchestral, opera and ballet repertoire. In 1997, he received the Fundación Andes International Scholarship, which brought him to the US and Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied with Timpanist Timothy Adams former timpanist of thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He was made an honorary student at Cleveland State University by Tom Freer retired percussionist of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Working with Luft Mallets Leonardo launched his own signature line of Timpani sticks to the market and is a proud performing artist for Pearl / Adams Percussion, Adams Percussion, Remo Drumheads, and Luft Mallets. Leonardo has been playing Adams timpani since his first job in Detroit in 2003.
Find your Adams Percussion dealer
We deliver through an extensive network of dealers and distributors worldwide. Find the right contact to assist you in selecting your new instrument by using our
Our instruments are 100% designed and crafted in The Netherlands.