Leda Mileto - Violin I
Leda Mileto (2000) was born in Rome, Italy. Brought up in a musical home, she learnt how to sing, improvise, and read music early on. At home and at the Montessori nursery school she attended she was exposed to the Dalcroze approach, a music education method where experiencing music and rhythm through the body and refining its reactions to these is prior to any theoretical or instrumental learning. At 11 years old she was admitted to a specialist music course and she chose to learn the violin, one of Santa’s presents that year – fun fact: when asked in the entry test how many instruments (if any…) she had at home, she had to ask for extra paper to write them all down!
Her early violin mentors include Felice Cusano, whom she learnt with privately in Rome and Naples and at Fiesole School of Music, and Edoardo Zosi, whom she studied with at Rome Conservatoire’s Junior division. In 2020 Leda graduated from Carmen Staffieri’s class in Rome Conservatoire.
Leda obtained her Master’s degree (2022) with support from the Charles Greenough Award and a Postgraduate Diploma (2023), which she was admitted to with a prize scholarship, from the RNCM – Royal Northern College of Music. She also studied privately with David Takeno in London from 2022 to 2024.
Some recent highlights for Leda include 2023 Stauffer Academy Summer Festival performance with Abel Selaocoe and 2024 “Tradition and Improvisation” concert at Stauffer Academy, where she performed a duet with Viktoria Mullova and in a string ensemble with Matthew Barley, both in Cremona. In 2025, Leda recorded the prémiere of a violin and piano version of Ailsa Dixon’s composition “I will lift up mine eyes”, performed for the launch of Lake District Music Festival (LDMF), and led the inaugural LDMF Academy ensemble. Leda is also a Trustee and Environmental Champion for Lake District Music since 2024.
Passionate about music education, Leda teaches violin, rhythmics, and improvisation for the Junior division of the RNCM according to Dalcroze principles. Leda has also taught Dalcroze Eurhythmics for New Virtuosi (Oxford), Sandbach String Orchestra, and Pendle Community Orchestra. She has been training towards the Dalcroze Professional Certificate with Dalcroze UK.
Leda was part of the 2024/2025 cohort of 360 Fellows of the Manchester Camerata. She is currently mentored by their leader Caroline Pether. Leda plays a Johannes Cuypers violin of the year 1797 on generous loan from the Harrison Frank Family Foundation, with her E. Comim bow.
Leda takes pride in a vast literary and cinematic culture, which she is always looking to enlarge. She loves walks, reading in the park, yoga, live music, matcha, cooking, and hanging out with friends. She also greatly cherishes time spent in Italy with her family. Leda has a good memory for long strings of numbers, names, and dates – often proving useful to her quartet friends!