Byron De Leon is a Guatemalan-American conductor, baritone, and educator from Brooklyn, NY. An active performer in the tri-state area, he sings with the Marble Choir at Marble Collegiate Church and the Delaware Choral Scholars, and has performed with professional ensembles, including Voices of Ascension and Bard Festival Chorale. He recently served as Conducting Apprentice for the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia’s 152nd season and maintains a private studio in the New York City region.

De Leon earned his Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick, where he worked with the University Choir, Glee Club, Kirkpatrick Choir, and Opera Theater choruses. He also served as a private voice instructor for non-voice major students from other disciplines who participated in Rutgers Choirs. He has participated in distinguished festivals and workshops, including the Collaborative Piano Institute, the Cleveland Orchestra Summer Choral Institute, the Elevate Vocal Arts Summer Institute, the King’s Singers Summer School, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at Yale Summer School of Music, the Florence Choral Course Sarteano Choral Workshop, YPC National, Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute, and the Lift Every Voice Symposium.

He holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance with a minor in Linguistics from the Ithaca College School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. At Ithaca, he performed as both ensemble singer and soloist with groups such as the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble (CVE), Syracuse Chorale, and the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS), later serving as DCJS’s Vocal Coach Coordinator and Student Conductor. In his senior year, he was Bass Section Leader and Student Conductor of the Ithaca College Choir, making his conducting debut at the 2023 All-Eastern NAfME Conference in Rochester, NY. He was also a founding member of Ithaca’s first Vocal Chamber Music Ensemble (S.O.C.K.S.). De Leon is an alumnus of the Professional Performing Arts School in Hell’s Kitchen, NY, where he sang with the National Chorale.

Music has the power to transform lives, build community, and give young people a voice. Singing is feeling, and when someone learns to navigate that feeling, a world of possibilities opens; the voice is the most vulnerable and powerful muscle we have as human beings. That belief shapes his work as a conductor, educator, and performer: creating spaces where singers of all ages can grow, connect, and share their stories through music.