Cellist Leanne Zacharias is an educator and interdisciplinary artist who collaborates with composers, songwriters, architects and artists of all stripes. Originally from small-town Southern Manitoba, she completed Master and Doctoral studies at the Shepherd School of Music and University of Texas - Austin before joining the cello section of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Now, her diverse career includes orchestral, chamber music and solo playing along with concert design and collaboration including feature presentations at the Museum for Human Rights, International Cello Festival of Canada, Winnipeg Design Festival, Newfoundland's Sound Symposium, and international festivals in Iceland, Scotland, UK, Mexico, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. She has premiered hundreds of pieces, worked with leading composers including Nicole Lizee, Arvo Part and Joan Tower, and toured with John K Samson, The Mountain Goats, Christine Fellows, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and SaskPower. Her solo album Music for Spaces was released by Redshift Records in 2021, and 2026 will see the release of her second album and as soloist in Cree composer Andrew Balfour’s Notinikew oratorio. Leanne is currently an artistic director of the Groundswell new music series in Winnipeg, Brandon’s Wheat City Nuit Blanche, the Wild Studio creative workshop (held in Canadian National Parks), and has served on juries for the Juno Awards, Canada Council for the Arts, Winnipeg Arts Council, Warming Huts Art and Architecture Competition and Canadian New Music Network. An energetic teacher, she has lectured at the Parsons Design School in New York, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Banff’s Research in Culture workshop, delivered masterclasses across North America and taught at Cadenza, Rosamunde and Domaine Forget summer festivals. On faculty at Brandon University since 2008, she is currently the Acting Dean of the Brandon University School of Music.