For their first album, some artists might feature repertoire they performed to win an international competition; others might select rarely heard works. But Kerson Leong chose still another route: a series of encores treasured by violinists of both years past and today. “I find that sometimes you can say a lot with very little. I thought that encores, which anyone can relate to, could be the ideal way to introduce myself,” he states in an interview.

Kerson Leong carefully handpicked the works. “I looked at Heifetz’ and Kreisler’s transcriptions and wanted also to introduce some pieces that people may not have heard as much”. For example, the haunting Hebrew Melody by Arnold Schoenberg’s friend Joseph Yulyevich Achron, a favourite of Jascha Heifetz, or Medtner’s Fairy Tale, a piece his accomplice Philip Chiu knows well in its original version for piano. “I wanted to balance flavours, to juxtapose lesser-known pieces with some that people would instantly recognize and could relate to”.

Kerson Leong gained international recognition in 2010 at the age of 13 when he won the Junior First Prize at the Menuhin Competition in Oslo. He won the Young Soloist Prize 2015 of the Radios francophones publiques. He is also the Grand Prize winner of the Stepping Stone 2014 and a five time Grand Prize winner (2005-2009) at the Canadian Music Competition. In 2013, he won the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary Competition, as well as First Prize at the OSM Standard Life Competition.