South Australian Leigh completed undergraduate and post-graduate studies at The University of Adelaide with concert pianist Gil Sullivan. During this time he was a National Finalist in the Young Performer Awards and a recipient of the prestigious Beta Sigma Phi Classical Music Award.
He moved to Melbourne in 2003 to take up a full scholarship at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) under the mentorship of Geoffrey Tozer and in 2004 was made the Academy Fellow - the first person in the institution's history to be chosen as such after just one year of study. In 2008 he was named The Advertiser Musician of the Year.
Leigh has performed extensively throughout Europe, North America, Africa and Australia as both soloist and chamber musician, including concerts at Australia House in London, the Royal Academy of Music, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Harare International Festival of Arts, and concerto engagements with many Australian orchestras.
In 2007 he undertook an extensive tour of the United States and Canada where he gave lectures on and performed the solo piano music of the American composer Robert Muczynski.
Internationally he has collaborated with Thomas Reibl, lecturer in viola at the Salzburg Mozarteum; Michael Cox, principal flautist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Gaede, ex-concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; London flautist Wissam Boustany; New York violinist Charles Castleman; Swedish cellist Mats Lidstrom; and British pianist Mark Gasser.Other significant international collaborations have included performance and studies with Andrew Ball at the London Royal College of Music; Sophie Cherrier at the Paris Conservatoire; New York-based pianist Lisa Moore and English composer Peter Maxwell Davies.
In June 2002, Leigh traveled to the Orkney Islands to perform a concert of Maxwell Davies' works in the presence of the composer.
Leigh is a founding member of the Kegelstatt Ensemble and the contemporary music group Syzygy Ensemble – both winners of major national awards - and has an internationally acclaimed piano duo with London-based pianist Coady Green with whom he regularly tours through Europe, Australia and Africa.
He is a recording artist for ABC Classics and in 2010 released his debut recording for Sony with soprano Greta Bradman.
He is currently on the Associate Faculty at ANAM, and performs regularly as orchestral pianist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
