Emmanuel de Leon Jr., DMA, is an award-winning Filipino conductor, music educator,
scholar, and advocate of contemporary choral music. He was named "Outstanding Conductor" at the 2nd Tokyo International Choir Competition 2019. He won grants from the University of Notre Dame, the University of the Philippines
(UP) Alumni Association of America, and UPAA San Diego. He became a "Lovelace Scholar"
of The Hymn Society of America and Canada in 2022.
He taught conducting and choral singing at the University of the Philippines College
of Music, where he obtained his Master's Degree in Choral Conducting, Bachelor's Degree,
and Diploma in Creative and Performing Musical Arts in Music Education. As the former
conductor of the University of the Philippines Manila Chorale, he led the group in
winning international choral competitions and festivals in Spain, Japan, and the Philippines.
Additionally, he and the group collaborated with various humanitarian organizations
to help fundraise for victims of natural disasters and sent selected orphans to school
to get an education. His doctoral studies at the University of Notre Dame from 2019
to 2024 were under the tutelage of Dr. Carmen-Helena Téllez, Dr. Nancy Menk, and Dr.
Mark Doerries. Emmanuel is among the 12 Dissertation Fellows 2023 of Notre Dame's
Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts in 2023.
An advocate of underrepresented composers from the Philippines and the rest of Asia,
Emmanuel commissions and premieres work for choir and instrumental ensembles. In 2022,
he won a grant from the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and Institute for Scholarship
in the Liberal Arts's Graduate Student Research Awards to commission and perform the
world-premiere of Eudenice Palaruan's "Pastol," a choral devotion based on Psalm 23
in polyglot, written for boy soprano, soloists, mixed choir, organ, harp, percussions,
and Philippine bamboo instruments.
As part of his life-long commitment to music education, Emmanuel continuously attends
and applies to competitive masterclasses and symposia across the US, Europe, and Southeast
Asia to acquire new knowledge and sharpen and further advance his rehearsal and conducting
skills. He was accepted as a conducting fellow in Chorus America and the prestigious
Norfolk Chamber Choir and Choral Conducting Workshop, auspices by the Yale School
of Music in 2020. In 2021, he was selected for the Cascade Conducting Masterclass
with Maestra Sarah Ioannides and Symphony Tacoma. His conducting performance of "Flux"
was chosen and featured online in the work's world premiere. Emmanuel is a Lovelace
Scholar of The Hymn Society of America and Canada for its 100th anniversary and 2022
international conference at The Catholic University of America. He was also a participant
and a conducting fellow for the Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute at Georgia State
University in June 2022. He studied with Dr. Deana Joseph and Dr. Daniel Bara. Emmanuel
was also accepted as a conducting fellow in the 2022 and 2023 Sarteano Chamber Choir
Conducting Workshop masterclass in Tuscany. He studied under Simon Carrington, a Yale
professor emeritus and co-founder of The King's Singers. In 2023, Emmanuel was selected
and featured as one of the six emerging conductors in America and Canada during the
Toronto Mendelssohn's Choir's Conducting Symposium in Toronto, Canada.
