Cheryl E. Leonard

Cheryl E. Leonard is a composer, performer, improviser and instrument builder. Over the last decade she has focused on investigating sounds, structures, and objects from the natural world. Leonard’s works cultivate stones, leaves, wood, water, sand, shells, feathers, and bones as musical instruments in compositions that reveal unique voices hidden within these materials. She has received grants from ASCAP, the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer, and been awarded residencies at Djerassi, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Villa Montalvo and Engine 27.