Leila Warren
Instrument: Violin
Biography:
Leila Warren of Ponte Vedra Beach Florida, student of Sonja Foster, began her violin studies at age 3. This year Leila was named National Finalist of the MTNA Junior String Competition for the second time and is delighted to have been selected for the 2023 season of NYO2 performing in Carnegie Hall, New York as well as the National Theatre and the Grab Teatro de Cibao in the Dominican Republic.
Leila has won First Place at the Junior Strings FMTA Concerto Competition, the Young Artist Competition for the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Gulf Coast Steinway Society Music Competition and the NFSO-John Leatherwood Concerto Competition where she won the opportunity to solo with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra for two concerts. Leila made her debut at 10, soloing with the University of North Florida Orchestra at Lazzara Hall for concerts sponsored by Beaches Fine Arts. In 2020 she was the youngest ever finalist to perform in the final round of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition and in 2022, won Second Prize in their live broadcast finals.
Last summer, Leila attended the Rushmore Music Festival in Rapid City, SD on a full scholarship where she was one of two students invited to play with faculty at a public concert. Leila also played first violin in a quintet that received the Grand Prize in their annual student RMF Chamber Music Competition. She has participated in Master Classes with Hagai Shaham, Stefan Jackiw, Kurt Sassmannshaus, the Dover Quartet (twice), the Vega Quartet and with Joe Deninzon, for the ASTA National Conference. Leila plays music through the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Chamber Artist Program (CAP) in Jacksonville and is an on-call instrument collaborator with the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus.
Outside of music, Leila is an 8th grade student taking several high school classes including Pre-Calculus and American Sign Language. She volunteers as a tutor of refugee students through the JaxThrive organization. Leila also enjoys running Cross Country and dancing Ballet and Contemporary with the A2K Dance Project.
Leila is honored to play on a 2010 Douglas Cox violin generously on loan from the Virtu Foundation.
