Byron De Leon is a Guatemalan-American conductor, baritone, and educator from Brooklyn, NY. An active performer in the Northeast, he sings with the Marble Choir at Marble Collegiate Church and will travel to Spain with the Delaware Choral Scholars for the Tolosa Choir Competition in late October 2025. He has also been invited to join the rosters of Choral Chameleon Ensemble and Elevation Ensemble, and will serve as a Conducting Apprentice for the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia’s 152nd season.

De Leon is the Artistic Coordinator & Assistant Conductor of the Young People’s Chorus @ Thurnauer (YPC@T) and teaches Voice and Creative Musicianship at the Thurnauer School of Music, Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Bergen County, NJ—a full-circle role, as his own musical journey began at age seven with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC). With YPC, he performed across the U.S. and abroad, including a 30-day, 18-concert tour of Japan’s major concert halls. He later taught in NYC public schools through YPC, preparing students for a culminating Lincoln Center performance alongside young singers from across the city.

He earned his Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where he worked with the University Choir, Glee Club, Kirkpatrick Choir, and Opera Theater choruses. He also taught private voice to non-major students from across the university. His training includes participation in renowned festivals and workshops, such as the Collaborative Piano Institute, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at Yale Summer School of Music, the UMKC Choral Conducting Symposium, the Sarteano Choral Workshop, the Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute, Bent But Not Broken, YPC National, the Choral Music Experience, and the Lift Every Voice Symposium.

De Leon holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance with a minor in Linguistics from the Ithaca College School of Music, Theater, and Dance, where he sang with the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, Syracuse Chorale, and the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS). With DCJS, he later served as Bass Section Leader, Vocal Coach Coordinator, and Student Conductor. At Ithaca, 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.