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<postdate>2025-02-07 14:09:24</postdate>
<headline>The world stage is calling conductor Weiss</headline>
<body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-337797" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MSO-140-copy.jpeg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p>
<caption>Leonard Weiss conducting the MSO. Photo: Mark Gambino</caption>
<p><strong>One of Canberraâ€™s best-known conductors is heading for the big time in the US.</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Tanglewood is the summer home and learning campus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with whom Weiss will make his conducting debut in 2026.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He left town just before covid struck to study under conductor Marin Alsop at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, later returningÂ  to take up a Churchill FellowshipÂ  program and conducting in NZ.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He says: â€œTanglewood is a truly magical place and to have the invitation to return as a conducting fellow in 2025 is a dream come true.â€</p>
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