We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leonardo Soto a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Leonardo , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Well… I was born and raise in Santiago Chile. Being South American, most kids always dream of being great soccer players, and so did I, after learning that my passion was in music I stepped away from most of my friends so I could dedicate time to this beautiful craft. After getting most of my education I then realized that Chile being a small country had very little options for me to pursue an orchestral position, so I had to take the risk of leaving friends and family behind, come to the USA as a student and finish my education. Finishing a music degree does not guarantee that you will ever get a job in an orchestra, you have to audition for one and it’s a very competitive field. Many students have as far as a doctorate degree in music and still cannot get an orchestral job, the only other avenue is to apply for a teaching job at either a University or school.
For me particularly, I always loved the Timpani, in a normal symphony orchestra there is but one Timpani position and 3 or 4 percussion positions, however I decided I would only take Timpani auditions because that was the dream, of course I narrowed the chances of winning an audition.
In my musical career I have taken 33 auditions and won 3 of them (Detroit Opera, Charlotte Symphony and Houston Symphony) For each one of them I spent hours of practicing, I missed birthdays, Christmases, weddings etc etc. I spent all my funds in instruments, drums sticks, drum heads, lessons, airplane tickets, hotels etc etc … but I can proudly say it was all worth the risk

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I got into music because my father is a drummer, he plays with one of Chile’s most prominent band on the field of latin music, I of course wanted to be like him and play at nights clubs, TV shows etc. However he made me go to the conservatory of music and learn the proper way, and there I fell in love with classical music I spent thousands of hours behind my instrument, I have taken many lessons and talked to colleagues around the world, with that information plus my own experience I have come to design my signature line of Timpani sticks with Luft Mallets which is a very small company that makes the highest quality sticks. I’m also working on designing my next set of drums with a company based in Holland named “Adams percussion”.
Besides all this, education it’s a very important part of my passion. To share my experiences, personal education and expertise with the next generation, to help students the way I was helped and inspired by my teachers, to pass the tradition and all new ways. I have been invited to Northwestern University to work with timpani students this past year and started as a faculty for Brevard Music Festival this summer, I also coach at Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra program in New York
Every time I travel to Chile to see my family I spend time working with the new students, Colombia has become another place I visit with the same purpose

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As beautiful and inspiring art is, it is also a very competitive field. There has to be a balance between hard work … super hard work and discipline plus creativity and a big sense of improvisation. You have to be a planner on your field but still leave space for inspiration. It takes courage to accept criticism and the pain tolerance to accept all those doors that close. I always say “Don’t let your failures get your heart, don’t let your success get to your head” … sounds easy but it’s really hard to do, sometimes it takes many days to get over a shut door, it can be a big heartbreak, I have seen people give up from this, and that was always a lesson to keep. You are not on this for the money, you are on this because of your love for the craft, and because art it’s part of humanity, always has been and always will, art defines a culture, music is a language

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Getting to step on stage every weekend and play that music with my colleagues it’s an indescribable experience, that said, hearing the cheer from the audience at the end of the performance it’s one of the most rewarding experiences because you know you played a part on their happiness, even if it’s just for that evening! I always remind myself that even if the piece we are playing we have played it before, there’s always someone there that it listening to it for the first time. On the other hand, being able to work with the younger generation and listening to the improvement or when they do well at an audition, that is such a rewarding experience. To be able to teach requires so much creativity because you have to learn to explain things to each person in a different way, understand personalities so the information is taken on the right way

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Leonardochileno
• Facebook: Leonardo Soto
• Twitter: @r_leonardorsoto

Image Credits
Houston Symphony Northwestern University percussion studio FOJI Chile Instagram @Brian.nicholas_