Leonardo R. Soto, Jr. is the Principal Timpanist of the Houston Symphony since 2018, prior to that he held the same position at the Charlotte Symphony and the Michigan Opera Theatre-Detroit Opera House, he is also Timpanist at the Grand Tetons Music Festival and was an active member of Miami's Nu-Deco ensemble. Leo has performed with orchestras such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Seoul Philharmonic, Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago. As an educator Leo is a co-founder faculty at the International Timpani Intensive "ITI", he is faculty member at Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and the Brevard Music Festival, and has dictated masterclasses at Universities such as Northwestern, DePaul, Rice, Denver, UGA, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Seoul and Carnegie Hall’s NYO. His education includes University of Chile and Carnegie Mellon. Leo is a proud endorser of Luft Mallets, Adams percussion, Remo drumheads and Pearl Drums.