Leda Mileto is a violinist, Dalcroze practitioner, and educator from Rome, Italy based in Manchester since 2021. 

Brought up in a musical home, Leda was educated in music through the Dalcroze approach and started singing, playing the piano, and improvising early on, some of her first Dalcroze experiences being through Louisa Di Segni, pioneer of the approach in Italy, at the Montessori nursery school she attended and where Louisa taught. Having encountered the violin at the age of ten, she was taught according to the principles of the Italian school. Her early mentors include Felice Cusano and Edoardo Zosi. Leda performed in a number of national and international masterclasses and festivals from a young age, alongside renowned artists. She graduated from the Conservatoire in Rome in 2020, and was selected for Yair Kless’s studio at the RNCM - Royal Northern College of Music for her Masters, with support from the Charles Greenough Award. Here, she formed the Aestus String Quartet (2021-present), mentored by Donald Grant. 

The Aestus were recipient of the 2022 Weil Prize for classical and contemporary repertoire at the RNCM, and have since performed in major contexts across the UK (Southwell Music Festival, Lake District Music, Manchester Chamber Concerts Society in Stoller Hall, Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, Snape Maltings, Winchester Chamber Music Festival, Oxford Chamber Music Festival) and abroad (Festival Ravel, Festival of the Pergolesi Spontini Foundation). They were the RNCM selected Studio Quartet and Britten Pears Young Artists for 2023/2024. For the year 2024/2025, they have been invited to join Gabriel Le Magadure’s chamber music class at the Sergei Rachmaninov Conservatoire in Paris. 

The quartet shares a passion for outreach, which they have facilitated for a number of diverse audiences, presenting varied repertoire in an accessible way through the application of Dalcroze principles. Leda is especially keen on research in this field, and presented her work on embodiment according to the Dalcroze approach and Heidegger’s philosophy of “being there” applied to historical performance practices, tutored by Dr John Habron at the RNCM, at the International Conference of Dalcroze Studies in 2021. She also collaborated on the Italian translation of The Dalcroze Identity (2015 version). Leda is currently training towards the Dalcroze Professional Certificate with Dalcroze UK. 

She obtained her Master’s degree (2022) and later a Postgraduate Diploma (2023) from the RNCM with a prize scholarship, while also learning privately with David Takeno. Some recent outstanding experiences for her include masterclasses and performances with Abel Selaocoe, Viktoria Mullova, and Matthew Barley, which entailed the simultaneous and refined use of body, voice, improvisation, and learning by ear in musical performance and preparation, at Stauffer Academy (Cremona, Italy). 

In the 2023/2024 year Leda was appointed Tutor in violin, rhythmics, singing, and improvisation of the Junior department of the RNCM and Trustee as well as Environmental Champion of Lake District Music. She is a Ruth Sutton 360 Fellow of the Manchester Camerata for the year 2024/2025. 

Leda plays a Johannes Cuypers violin of the year 1797 on generous loan from the Harrison Frank Family Foundation, with her Edwin Clement bow.