The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s soloist, Leo Gevisser (pictured left) is back in his hometown to perform the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major with the CPO on Thursday, 27 August 2026, in the opening concert of the five-week Spring Symphony season. He arrived here via a recital with the Johannesburg Music Society and will leave after a private event performing with violinist Jordan Brooks for CPO donors, says PETA STEWART:
Leo Gevisser, who graduated from the Juilliard School of Music with a BMus in Piano Performance with academic honours and is now studying for an MFA in Sound Arts at Columbia University, has had a busy time in recent months in particular.
“For three months in the European summer I performed in a string of events across France and Italy with appearances in festivals such as the Traiettorie Festival in Parma, Italy, the Lille Piano Festival in France, Matinées du Piano in Orléans, France and Casa Menotti in Spoleto, Italy.” He also undertook a recording session in San Francisco. Leo has developed a deep interest in performing contemporary music.
A special highlight, he says, was being a composer and performer in residence at the Maison Dutilleux-Joy in Candes-Saint-Martin, France. “Some of my concerts incorporated my own electronic elements, including the use of an ch keyboard which I carried along with me during my travels (along with a heavy suitcase and backpack!).”
Leo’s entry into music before he was five was ordinary, he says. Like so many young learners, he started with the recorder. “Then as I discovered a piano at my pre-preparatory school and played it out of curiosity, I started taking piano lessons when I was around five but it took me six or seven years to lean into my studies on the piano,” he says. “Around that time, I also started taking composition and production lessons. I saw composition and piano as an escape, and something that gave me (and continues to give me) comfort in life. Subsequently, composition and piano happened concurrently to one another, and eventually developed into more of a career in piano. Although, currently I am experiencing a significant nexus in my career, where my focus and interests have gradually shifted towards composition and sound production.” Just for the record, he also mastered the violin!
Connection and community
When he was about nine, he went with this family to Plettenberg Bay, the start perhaps of his love of mountains and hiking, things like “connection and community that comes along with experiencing music and sound live. I took a trip to the Robberg Peninsula and while walking along the circular path, the openness of the environment simultaneously created an openness in the way I think about sound – in composition as well as performance.”
Leo, now 23 and a Young Steinway Artist, has played several times with the CPO, the first when he was in his very early teens and was a soloist in the final round of the SA Conductors’ Competition, then the Len Van Zyl Conductors’ Competition.
“Funnily enough, I played the first movement of the Ravel Concerto. Since then, I have had the honour of performing three more times with the CPO, something I am so grateful for because the energy and drive of the orchestra members, as well as the sheer quality of the artists engaged, are what sets the CPO apart from any orchestra I know. Not to mention the incredible Cape Town audience that is always immensely receptive to the programming and to the performances themselves.”
About the Ravel Concerto., he says: “I had been introduced to Ravel’s piano writing when I started learning the piece when I was about 12, but playing it with the CPO and also in Durban was an entirely different experience. I got to hear Ravel’s compositional command over his orchestration: the percussion, the solos, the contrasting textural articulations. Thus, the experience of working with this piece at that time not only expanded the way I was working with concert and chamber works, but also the individual sound of the piano itself. I am so looking forward to playing the full piece with the CPO.”
Future plans
“As I am experiencing a shift in my career focus, the future is slightly uncertain; however, there is so much to look forward to with what I’d intend on setting out for myself in my work. For instance: next summer (that is, the northern hemisphere’s summer), I plan on returning to Europe for some compositional projects,” says Leo.
He leaves us to return to New York where he will begin his penultimate semester at Columbia and he will work on his thesis for hisfinal year.
The concert, which will be conducted by Daniel Raiskin, includes Richard Strauss’ colourful Don Juan, an evocative piece by Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which was orchestrated by Ravel.
What: Leo Gevisser with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra; conductor Daniel Raiskin
Where and when: Cape Town City Hall on Thursday 27 August 2026
Tickets: Webtickets
WS
