Leo Steinriede is a New York based guitarist and composer. A native of Philadelphia, he studied at the Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts and Settlement Music School with Philadelphia jazz icons Lovett Hines, Monnette Sudler, Bobby Zankel, and Tony Miceli. Leo’s big band composition “The Rhetorical Situation” was chosen by Ted Nash and Wynton Marsalis as the winner of the Essentially Ellington Composition Contest.

Since then, he has continued honing his craft and composed many new works, including commissioned arrangements for Kurt Rosenwinkel and Mike Moreno. In 2023, Leo’s piece “PB Highway” was performed by Peter Bernstein at Ithaca College. Additionally, he was a runner-up in the first French National Jazz Composition contest held in Paris. During the summer of 2023, Leo participated in the prestigious JAS Aspen Academy led by Chuck Bergeron and the Elbphilharmonie Summer Jazz Academy in Hamburg led by Anat Cohen where he performed alongside jazz greats including Sullivan Fortner and Donny McCaslin.

Leo now resides in New York where he is mentored by David Berger, and studies guitar with Mike Moreno and Chris Rosenberg at the Manhattan School of Music.