Pianist Freddie Leon (nee Alfredo Leon, Jr.) was born in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, in December of 1953. In the mid 1970s moved to sunny and beautiful Miami, Florida where he attended undergraduate music studies at Miami Dade Community College, North Campus, and later at Florida International University. In the mid 1980s moved to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area attending graduate studies in musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, College Park.

For the past 35 years Mr. Leon has been working as a professional musician performing, conducting, composing, arranging, and recording for a wide variety of musical ensembles; as well as tutoring and teaching for several public and private music institutions. He is the co-author of a revolutionary piano method for small children entitled “The Husky Gang Teaches Piano” published by Warner Brothers in early 2001. He is currently working on a new book for beginner and intermediate jazz pianists to be completed before the end of the year 2012.

Mr. Leon has been a member of several outstanding musical ensembles throughout the years, including the “Federico Britos Ruiz’ Jazz Quartet,” and the “MEB Jazz Trio” in Miami, FL during the mid 1990s. He was also the music director and co-founder of the “Miami Latin Jazz Ensemble” in the early 1990s, and led his own jazz trio in Los Cabos, Mexico in early 2000.

As a solo pianist, Mr. Leon’s style and delicate pianist touch has been praised by many of his colleagues, collaborators, and friends, including former Miami Symphony Orchestra concertmaster and jazz violinist Federico Britos Ruiz, concert pianist and teacher Phyllis Sdoia-Satz, director of the prestigious music academy Sdoia-Satz Music Institute in Miami Shores, FL, and by the world renowned master pianist Richard Clayderman. Throughout the years Mr. Leon has performed at several well known sites including many hotels, restaurants, and country clubs primarily in the south Florida area. Among them, at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, the Ritz Carlton Hotel of West Palm Beach, the Green Street Lounge in the Coral Gables’ Holiday Inn, the Sheraton Bal Harbour Hotel, the Coral Gables’ Biltmore Hotel Lounge and Patio, and at the Doral Country Club, among others. Also, Mr. Leon successfully performed for two and a half years at the very elegant and exclusive resort Las Ventanas al Paraiso, at the magnificent resort La Esperanza, and at the great Palmilla Hotel in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. While working in Mexico, he completed and released his recording entitled “Moments” in 2001.

Since 2003, Mr. Leon has been primarily devoted to teaching and composing. He has worked for both the Miami-Dade County Public School System and the New York City Department of Education. During this period he has composed music in a variety of different styles including music for academic purposes. In April of 2011, he released his latest recording entitled “A Musical Tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim” featuring his own compositions and arrangements. His newest CD, entitled “Smooth & Relaxing” featuring all original compositions, is scheduled to be released before the autumn of 2012.