One of Canberra’s best-known conductors is heading for the big time in the US.

Leonard Weiss, who is presently assistant conductor with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, has been selected as a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts and will make his debut there on July 7 conducting works by Smetana.

Tanglewood is the summer home and learning campus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with whom Weiss will make his conducting debut in 2026.

One of only two conducting fellows selected from applicants around the world, Weiss is a Canberran who for many years conducted with Canberra Youth Orchestra, Canberra Sinfonia and most other major orchestras in the ACT.

He left town just before covid struck to study under conductor Marin Alsop at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, later returning  to take up a Churchill Fellowship  program and conducting in NZ.

Weiss will also soon make his debut with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and at the Melbourne Recital Centre in November, with engagements coming up in Sydney and NZ, too.

He says: “Tanglewood is a truly magical place and to have the invitation to return as a conducting fellow in 2025 is a dream come true.”