The American musician Francis Léger is CEO and Founder of Applied Virtuosics. Recognized as a gifted interpretive artist, he has a track record of transforming and building orchestras, and of exciting American and international audiences with profoundly moving performances.

Léger has built upon an enormous range of experience. In Prague, he served as Principal Conductor and Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Chamber Philharmonic. In China, he served as Music Advisor to the national Kong Xiang-Dong Music Organization. He first garnered international attention over twenty-five years ago, and was one of the first Americans to guest conduct the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. In Italy, he served as Music Director of the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the United States, Léger has worked with symphony orchestras and chamber orchestras in the Northeast and Southwest, and served a tenure in music, opera production and administration at The Opera Company of Boston. He has held conducting positions with other opera companies including American National Opera, Austin Opera, Opera New England, and the Hartt Opera Theater. He made his opera debut conducting Gaetano Donizetti's "La Fille Du Régiment” at the historic Central City Opera Festival in Colorado.

Léger has conducted conservatory and university orchestras, internationally and in the United States as music director and guest conductor, and among others served at The Boston Conservatory of Music, The University of Minnesota, Duluth, Eastern Connecticut State University, and Central Texas College.

Director of Orchestras at UMD, he was the artist cellist on faculty and led the orchestral program conducting the symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, and orchestra festival. Music faculty and the first Artist-in-Residence at Texas A&M University, Central Texas, he established the music program and orchestra festival, taught a full complement of music courses, performed chamber music concerts, and served in the University Center for Applied Research and Engagement. As head of music research, he also worked on cybersecurity in music and founded the innovative Music Performance and Research Lab.

Mr. Léger studied and trained at leading institutions, programs, and institutes in the United States and Europe, and graduated Phi Kappa Phi honors from Ithaca College School of Music in New York. In addition to professional studies and work as a trumpet player, he began cello shortly before age twenty-one, earned an MM degree in Cello Performance and was awarded the Graduate Assistantship in Conducting from The Boston Conservatory of Music. He continued advanced studies in Orchestral and Opera Conducting at the University of Hartford, The Hartt School under Austrian conductor Kurt Klippstatter.

Léger’s work has taken him to major cities including Beijing, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Barcelona, London, and Paris. Special Guest Conductor and Composer at the International Shanghai Television Festival, he was music director for classical programming and conducted televised concerts which also featured world premieres of his music. He has been both a Visiting Artist and Scholar at the American Academy in Rome.

Early in his professional career while working in Italy he accepted a personal invitation to study with the legendary Franco Ferrara. After hearing Léger conduct the Arena Orchestra of Verona, Ferrara stated, “Rarely have I heard such emotion.”