Meet the Student: Q&A with Violinist Leah Amory

Leah Amory, from New York City, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2022 and studies violin with Pamela Frank and Erin Keefe. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Amory holds a fellowship from an anonymous donor.

What was your first musical experience, and what led you to play the violin and pursue a career in classical music?
I must be the luckiest daughter in the world: my favorite string quartet, the Brentano, often rehearsed in our living room during my childhood. Though I observed a contrast between the lively, bantering conversations and the sincere, confessional playing that suffused the apartment with such humble artistry, I couldn’t help but draw a connection between the Musician and the Person. I came to associate playing with the steadfast bonds of friendship; when their dress rehearsal for Schubert’s cello quintet left me aching in the back of the empty hall at age thirteen, I started to identify with that desire for companionship. And what better way to reveal one’s values than through one’s fervently determined musical voice? What do we play for if not to express openly what cannot be said with words?

I have always felt that making music is a fiercely vulnerable act. It’s not about teaching the Person to be a Musician but rather turning the Musician back into a Person. I am grateful to have grown from such a nourishing musical environment—it has allowed me the dimensional space to affirm my individuality in the role of a friend, daughter, and violinist.

What have you enjoyed the most about your experience here at Curtis over the past six months?
The exigency to drop everything and play! I’m endlessly inspired by the classmates I’ve met here: whether it’s lampooning the wind instrument solos of certain symphony recordings during lunch, getting kicked out of practice rooms because somebody else signed it out first, or toiling through an 8 a.m. chamber rehearsal due to scheduling conflicts, there is never a lack of urgency to create art to one’s own highest potential. I’m still pleasantly astonished when my musical references are received without a moment’s hesitation. There is something undeniably gratifying about finding a niche group of people with whom you speak the same language; at Curtis, every interaction is tethered to both parties’ indubitable love for sharing music.

What was one of your most memorable performances?
I can’t speak for my own performances, but I’ve attended several life-changing concerts. Besides the aforementioned Brentano Schubert Quintet experience, I was fortunate to hear them perform Beethoven’s opus 132 and 135 and, most recently, Dvorak’s A flat quartet opus 105 at PCMS [Philadelphia Chamber Music Society]. I can recall leaving the concert hall each of these times feeling an unequivocal sense of purpose; their collaboration and support of one another clears the cobwebs of the corporeal world and reveals to us how unadorned human connection might look and sound. I also found this sincerity in Mitsuko Uchida’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 488 this past summer and Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze,” a simple aria I watched Leon Fleisher casually bring to life a few years before his death in 2020. To me, these were no longer performances, as there was nothing performative about them; rather, they were moments of revelation. As a musician, it’s not only a possibility but also a duty to speak the composer’s truth, and I feel deeply grateful to those who communicate using poetry instead of mere prose.

Watch Leah Amory perform the Allegro movement of Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Curtis staff pianist Jungeun Kim at the piano. 

What you like to do outside of practicing and performing?
One of my main passions is crossword puzzle solving (and creating! Go check out my Curtis-themed crossword in the spring 2022 issue of Overtones). There’s such safety that lies within the realm of wordplay and language patterns. Maybe that’s just my excuse to be antisocial.

I also love reading chamber music with friends and family! A musician’s goal of precision often clouds the spontaneity of music-making, so I value the concept of experiencing a piece together just for the sake of experiencing it. Lastly, I enjoy art-making, as I majored in visual art at LaGuardia High School. I was involved in anatomy, ceramics, printmaking, non-objective, studio, still life, and painting classes, but my favorite media to work with is a black felt-tip pen. LaGuardia also offered me a chance to work with film and digital photography, which I still delight in today. I have yet to explore how art-making and music-making can become further intertwined, though I’ve found that one typically enriches and inspires the other.

Photos of Leah Amory by Nichole MCH Photography.