Jeff Leonard

Background

Jeffrey P. Leonard is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Berklee College of Music, having majored in Music Education and Jazz Composition & Arranging. He holds a master's degree in Music Education from Boston University. Jeff was the director of bands and the jazz program at Lexington High School starting in 1983, and the Performing Arts Coordinator for the Lexington Public Schools from 2008 until his retirement at the end of the 2017 shcool year. In 1996, he took over as the music director of the Lexington Bicentennial Band when founder Donald J. Gillespie, Jr. retired from the group.

He is the recipient of the Massachusetts Music Educators' Distinguished Service Award, the Massachusetts Jazz Educators' Lifetime Achievement Award and Lowell Mason Award, the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association's Hall of Fame Award, the Lexington Public School's Teacher Of the Year Award and the Dr. Michael Fiveash Teaching Award.

He is currently an Associate Professor of the Berklee College of Music, an Adjunct Professor at Boston University, and is the co-director of the Youth Jazz Orchestra in the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division. Jeff is a multi-reed player who is found in theatre pit orchestras all around the Boston metropolitan area. He is an in-demand clinician, adjudicator, and conductor for regional, state, and national music festivals, having conducted district, regional, and all-state concert and jazz bands throughout New England.

Contact

email: jeffleonard@rcn.com

last modified on Tuesday April 21st 2026 by Jeff Glass