Based in New York City, Leerone holds a master's degree and a bachelor's degree in Violin Performance from The Juilliard School.
Israeli-American violinist, Leerone Hakami, embarked on a campaign of begging her parents to play the violin at age two. It took three years, but by age five, she stood proudly with her 1/8th sized violin that could barely make a sound. This proved to be the right decision on her parents’ part, as the violin took her to Carnegie Hall, three different continents, and Juilliard.
After receiving her Bachelor’s Degree from The Juilliard School, Leerone continued at Juilliard to pursue her Master’s Degree under distinguished pedagogue, Lewis Kaplan. In Israel, she has worked under the tutelage of Anna Agre and Hagai Shaham. In New York, Leerone learned with Arik Braude and Lewis Kaplan in Mannes Preparatory Division, where she spent her Saturdays and served as co-concertmaster of the Mannes Philharmonic. Leerone served as co-principal of the Juilliard Orchestra, and she had the pleasure of working with world renowned conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Jeffrey Milarsky, Gianandrea Noseda, Case Scaglione, amongst others.
As the recipient of top prizes in multiple competitions, Leerone had the opportunity to solo in halls such as Lincoln Center’s Merkin Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Leerone was awarded prizes such as the Grand Prize of the New York Artist’s International Competition, the Silver Prize of the International Virtuoso Competition, and the top prize in the Great Neck House Young Artists Competition. Leerone appeared as a soloist with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta and had the opportunity to perform Saint-Saëns’ third violin concerto in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. She has appeared in publications of Newsday and the Great Neck Record as a Scholar Artist of the Long Island Arts Alliance Association.
With a passion for chamber music, Leerone was a proud member of the Juilliard Honors Chamber Music program along with her string quartet. This quartet would perform for Holocaust survivors at New York City’s Dorot, while spending time getting to know them and hearing their stories. Her time playing chamber music gave her the honor of working with esteemed chamber music faculty, such as Toby Appel, Emanuel Ax, Natasha Brofsky, Veda Kaplinsky, Paul Katz, Dorothy Lawson, Jon Manasse, Masumi Per Rostad, Samuel Rhodes, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Gary Thor Wedow, Areta Zhulla. She has also participated in Juilliard’s ChamberFest three years at Juilliard. This program gives lovers of chamber music a week-long chamber intensive during winter recess to extensively study a chamber work with regular rehearsals and coachings, with the goal of performing it within the week. She has also appeared in Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society’s Young Musicians Program.
Although classically trained, Leerone enjoys a variety of musical styles and has participated in diverse collaborations. She has collaborated with members of International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), has recorded with DJ Libranine, and has participated in the Off-Broadway production of Magic the Play. A strong advocate for improvisation, Leerone was part of the NOVA Ensemble- an improvisatory collaboration between musicians and dancers. With NOVA, she conducted a workshop in Collège de Montréal for high school students to collaborate and learn the connection between improvisation for music and dance. She is also a member of Collaborative Arts Ensemble, a group of musicians, dancers, and actors who share their political voice through art. Leerone also enjoyed participating in Juilliard’s ChoreoComp for three out of her four years at Juilliard. ChoreoComp gave her the opportunity to premiere a work created by a composer and choreographer for a small ensemble of musicians and dancers. She also premiered Champion, a work for solo violin by composer, Trey Makler, which was composed for and dedicated to Leerone.
Her passionate artistry translates into her community, as teaching serves a significant role in her life. Leerone spends much of her time working with private students of all ages and levels. Her other teaching endeavors include teaching a group violin class for young students as faculty of Harmony Program, and private lessons as faculty of NYC’s City Strings and Piano. As co-founder of The Heartbeat Project, Leerone received an Entrepreneuship Grant from The Juilliard School to spend the summers of 2016 and 2017 conducting a workshop on the Navajo Reservation’s Navajo Techincal University , sharing music through math to K – 12 students. Leerone was a recipient of the Morse Teaching Fellowship, where she served as a teacher’s assistant in Harmony Program. Leerone was also a proud recipient of Juilliard’s Gluck Community Service Fellowship, where she interactively performed in various NYC healthcare facilities in a quintet of musicians and dancers. As the founder of the Joining Hands Project, Leerone received a Community Engagement Grant from The Juilliard School to facilitate a workshop conducted at the Yad be Yad school in Jerusalem, Israel and the Arab Jewish Community Center in Yafo, Israel. In this workshop she both studied, performed, and taught music of Arabic and Jewish cultures and promoted discussion of cultural celebration and tolerance. Leerone and a colleague also conducted a lecture and masterclass on “Creative Inquiry in Music” in Oregon’s Pacific University.
A lover of travel, Leerone has spent her summers attending various summer music festivals all over the world. She has attended and performed in the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont, Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, Fete Musicales de Savoie in France, Keshet Eilon Summer Mastercourse in Israel, New Virtuosi Summer Mastercourse in Italy, and Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, Bach Virtuosi Festival in Maine, Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Vermont Mozart Festival. She had the opportunity to appear as a soloist with the Vermont Mozart Festival orchestra, playing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. At such summer festivals she was able to participate in masterclasses of Lewis Kaplan, Espen Lilleslatten, Frans Helmerson, Lawrence Dutton, and the Pacifica Quartet.