Violist Leah Ferguson joined the New York Philharmonic in October 2018, having previously been a member Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2016. Originally from Chicago, Leah began playing the violin at age five and switched to viola at age twelve, studying with Roland Vamos. 

Leah has performed as Guest Principal Viola with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Guest Associate Principal with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and as Assistant Principal with the Rochester Philharmonic. Her performances have been broadcast by WCLV Cleveland, WFMT Chicago, WQXR The Greene Space, NPR’s From the Top and HBO’s documentary television series Masterclass. 

As a chamber musician, Leah has participated in summer festivals including Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Verbier, and the Perlman Music Program. She has worked closely with musicians including Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Miriam Fried, and toured with Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute and the Perlman Music Program. Leah performs chamber music regularly with her NY Philharmonic colleagues and has been a guest of the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Leah holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Graduate Diploma from The Juilliard School, where she was a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. Her teachers include Robert Vernon, Mark Jackobs, Heidi Castleman, and Cynthia Phelps.