During the 2026 to 2027 academic year, Dr. César Leal is thrilled to join the University of Illinois Chicago as Visiting Clinical Associate Professor, where he will conduct the UIC Orchestra and teach courses in musicology. The appointment brings together two central dimensions of his career, performance and scholarship, within UIC’s dynamic and diverse academic community. He looks forward to collaborating with students and colleagues, building ambitious artistic projects, and creating meaningful connections between the concert hall and the classroom.
A Colombian born conductor and musicologist, Leal’s career bridges performance, research, and public scholarship. He is Director of Orchestral Activities and Associate Professor of Music at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College, where he has led the Conservatory Orchestra on international tours and coordinates the musicology program. He has conducted professional and academic ensembles throughout the Americas and Europe. In 2025, he made his Lincoln Center debut leading the National Chorale in Handel’s Messiah Sing In at David Geffen Hall. He previously served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Sewanee Symphony Orchestra and as faculty and artistic advisor at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.
Leal is known for projects that bring performance into dialogue with scholarship and interdisciplinary inquiry. His work includes a full stage collaboration with the Lexington Ballet honoring Les Ballets Russes and programs with the Panama National Symphony Orchestra exploring connections between European and Latin American traditions. Recent collaborations include projects with the American Spiritual Ensemble and the Martha Graham Dance Company during its centennial season.
In 2025, Leal was named Chair of the Ann McIlhenny Harward Interdisciplinary Program for Culture and Music, which brings artists, scholars, and students together through cross disciplinary collaboration. As a scholar, he coedited America in the French Imaginary, 1789 to 1914, published by Boydell and Brewer and recipient of an American Musicological Society Publication Subvention Award. His writing appears internationally, and he is currently guest editor of a special issue of Sound Studies Review, an international peer-reviewed music journal (Brepols). He is also working on the new coedited volume Sound in Practice: Teaching, Thinking, and Collaborating, a bilingual publication of the Mexican Center for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS) that brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on sound, pedagogy, scholarship, creative practice, and collaboration.
A dedicated teacher and mentor, Leal has led masterclasses, adjudicated national competitions, and worked extensively with youth and honors ensembles. He holds a PhD in musicology from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree in conducting from Florida International University, where he studied with Stewart Robertson.