Byron De Leon is a Guatemalan-American conductor, baritone, and educator from Brooklyn, NY. An active performer and music leader in the tri-state area, he sings with and frequently conducts the Marble Choir at Marble Collegiate Church. He has performed with professional ensembles, including Voices of Ascension, Elevation Ensemble, and Philadelphia Symphonic Choir. This fall, began serving as a Conductor with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Choir Project Leader with Uncommon Schools. He recently completed a Conducting Apprenticeship with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia’s 152nd season

De Leon’s performance work has taken him both nationally and internationally. As a member of the Delaware Choral Scholars, he competed at the Tolosa International Choir Competition, where the choir won multiple first-place prizes and an invitation to compete in the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in Maribor, Slovenia, in April 2026. 

He earned a 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. and taught private voice lessons to non-voice majors participating in Rutgers Choirs. His continuing artistic development includes the Collaborative Piano Institute, Cleveland Orchestra Summer Choral Institute, Elevate Vocal Arts Summer Institute, King’s Singers Summer School, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at Yale Summer School of Music, Florence Choral Course Sarteano Choral Workshop, YPC National, Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute, 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, 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 Young People’s Chorus of New York City and the Professional Performing Arts School. 

De Leon believes that music can transform lives, build community, and give young people a voice. His work as a conductor, educator, and performer is grounded in creating spaces where singers of all ages can grow, connect, and share their stories through music. For him, singing is feeling: learning to navigate that vulnerability opens a world of possibility, revealing the voice as one of our most powerful human instruments.