Veronica Leahy - Emmanuel Michael Duo
Veronica Leahy is a composer, multi-woodwindist, and music director based in New York, currently pursuing a Master of Music in Jazz Saxophone at The Juilliard School. Praised for her “harmonic erudition” by Downbeat Magazine, Veronica has performed with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Kurt Elling, Ted Nash, Christian Sands, Kris Davis, Stew, the Future of Jazz Orchestra, and the Diva Jazz Orchestra, and at venues including Lincoln Center, Birdland, Scullers, Dizzy’s Club, and 54 Below. In 2022, Veronica played bass clarinet on the GRAMMY Award-winning album New Standards, Vol. 1. Festival appearances include the Monterey Jazz Festival, Winter Jazzfest, JAS Aspen, Caramoor Jazz Festival, and the Ravinia Music Festival, where she was a Steans Music Institute fellow. Veronica recently graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University, having studied in the dual program with Berklee College of Music. While attending Harvard, she composed the music for four full-length original musicals and was awarded Harvard’s Radcliffe Doris Cohen Levi Prize for achievement in musical theater. Veronica is also an Advanced member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Her jazz composition “20/20” was published in New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers. Currently, she holds a reed chair on the hit Broadway show Just in Time starring Jonathan Groff.
Born and raised in South Dakota as a first-generation Ugandan and Southern Sudanese, Emmanuel Michael is a New York City-based artist who believes that without self-reflection and empathy towards himself and others, the foundation of what makes a truthful artist/human would crumble.
The world-traveling guitarist/composer began playing guitar in 8th grade and soon began to gain attention while attending public school at Washington High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he was invited to be a member of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Peer-To-Peer All-Star Sextet with world-renowned saxophonist Steve Wilson and vocalist Lisa Henry, as a sophomore, leading masterclasses and performing with the ensemble. Shortly after, Michael was accepted as a member of the NYO Jazz Orchestra (led by Carnegie Hall) under the direction of trumpeter Sean Jones and two-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist Kurt Elling, touring, performing, and teaching extensively throughout China and Taiwan while entering his senior year of high school.
Emmanuel was accepted into and currently attends the world-prestigious Manhattan School of Music and has been able to devote themself to learning and challenging their artistic morals by working with many other artists who also continue searching for truth and honesty. These ideals have enabled Emmanuel to work with a wide range of artists from Bill Frisell, Chris Dave, Terri Lynn Carrington, Dayna Stephens, Billy Drummond, Harish Ragavan, Ambrose Akinmusire, Marcus Gilmore, Marquis Hill, Gerald Clayton, Miles Okazaki, Mary Halverson, and Sullivan Fortner, to name just a few.