Leigh Tooker is an NYC-based vocalist, trumpet and French horn player, arranger, musical director, and certified PreK-12 music educator. Leigh has performed with a wide variety of wind ensembles, orchestras, choirs, jazz bands, funk bands, and chamber ensembles across New York City and the greater New York area. Currently, she is a vocalist with The Stamford Chorale of Stamford, CT. She writes bespoke vocal arrangements for a cappella groups that have been performed at ICCA festivals, and has performed as a pit musician for productions including Guys and Dolls, Shrek: The Musical, The Wedding Singer, and more. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Skidmore College, and a Master of Arts in Music Education from NYU Steinhardt. 

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While studying at NYU, Leigh performed with the NYU Jazz Choir in venues including the Frederick Loewe Theatre and the Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, and was featured on Good Morning America, as well as on tour in Okayama, Japan. Additionally, Leigh performed with the NYU Contemporary and Jazz Vocal Ensemble under the direction of jazz vocalists Janis Siegel (The Manhattan Transfer) and Lauren Kinhan (New York Voices). Leigh has studied both trumpet and voice under Mark Vinci, Kathleen Myrick, Patrice Malatestinic, Eric Latini, and Ira Shankman.  

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As an educator, Leigh has worked with students all across New York City, where she guides students to develop positive relationships with music and their surrounding world, through reflective and responsive practice, inquiry, project-based learning, and social-emotional development. While working towards her certification, Leigh served one season as the director of the NYU Children's Chorus, and taught PreK-8 general music, chorus, and band in public schools throughout Manhattan. She currently serves as a the Choral Director at Fox Lane Middle School in Bedford, NY, where she also musical directs productions at Fox Lane High School, including Rock of Ages, The Addams Family Musical, and Something Rotten.  

 

Leigh is an experienced and diversely influenced musician and educator with a rich background of instrumental and vocal training and performance. Her interests include reading, playing with her cats, and in the summer of 2019, she traveled to Estonia to collect post-Master's research on Laulupidu, Estonia's national choral festival.