Leonard Ingrande, a native of San Diego, has performed to critical acclaim in the United States and is the recipient of numerous awards in composition and performance. He graduated from the University of Southern California under the mentorship of pianist Bernardo Segal, Johanna Graudian, and conductor Daniel Lewis. Ingrande also attended the Aspen Music Festival under full scholarship, where he studied piano with Samuel Lipman and conducting with Jorge Mester. Upon completing his formal education, Ingrande further studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Juilliard School of Music. With prestigious honors, Ingrande was accepted into the master classes of conductor Herbert Blomstdet at Loma Linda University.

Ingrande is well known with audiences of opera, including opera education, history, and literature. He is also highly regarded for several compositions, especially his string quartet, which has been performed for young audiences. His study of Petrassi and Reveueltas resulted in a series of successful lecture concerts.

Organizations for which Ingrande has conducted include: the California Opera Association, Merced Symphony Orchestra, Festival Orchestra of San Joaquin, and the Monteverdi Chamber Orchestra. In recent years, Ingrande has conducted such outstanding concert artists as Pepe Romero, Anthony Newman, Nathaniel Rosen, and David Shifrin. A champion of contemporary music, Ingrande has premiered works by James Hobbs, David Ward Steinman, Mark Watters, and the late Paul Creston. Recent performances that Ingrande has conducted include: Hansel and Gretel, Carmen, Susannah, La Divina, The Telephone, Trouble in Tahiti, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and La Traviata. In 2006, Ingrande conducted the California Opera Summer Institute’s premiere production of Kurt Weill’s Down in the Valley. In 2008, he conducted a production of Puccini’s Il Tabaro.