William Leathers to Nashville Symphony

William Leathers has been appointed principal trumpet of the Nashville Symphony, following a successful audition in February 2022.

A Canadian trumpet player originally from Mississauga, Leathers is a student at the Julliard School.

Leathers has performed with several orchestras including the combined orchestra of The Royal Academy and Juilliard, in which he played principal trumpet at BBC Proms in 2019, and with The Juilliard Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2020, where he played principal trumpet in Mahler’s 5th Symphony. He is a member of a brass quintet, known as Brass22 and he has also performed with the American Brass Quintet.

William is currently a student of Christopher Martin and Raymond Mase at The Juilliard School. Previously, his instructors were Howard Leathers, Dr. Chris Cigolea, James Thompson and Guy Few.

Excelling at music from a very young age, Leathers won his first piano competition before his fifth birthday. At twelve years old, he became the youngest trumpeter to be accepted into the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

William has performed across Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and the Caribbean earning awards and accolades as he gained increased notoriety. He has won concerto competitions as a trumpeter and a pianist.

He is the fourth Canadian classical trumpeter to attend Juilliard. William is an inaugural Fendi Vanguard Award recipient at Juilliard and a 2021 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award winner. Now in the last year of his undergrad at Juilliard, he was recently accepted into the accelerated BM/MM program. He is a student ambassador and a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School.

William Leathers is a Bach Artist.

(Source: William Leathers, Neal Grindstaff, Bach Brass, Toronto Star)