A native of Nebraska, Leising-Catalan is an active piano educator, performer and adjudicator in the New York and New Jersey area. She teaches students in their homes throughout New York City, and has held faculty positions at The New School for Music Study in Kingston, New Jersey and at Brooklyn Musical Arts in New York. During the summer months, she accompanies various choirs of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp near Twin Lake, Michigan. As a registered Music Together teacher, she leads classes for toddlers, babies, and their caregivers in various locations around the city.
Awarded the Star Award from Music Teachers National Association for excellence in teaching, her students have participated in examinations such as The Achievement Program of Carnegie Hall, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music exams, and various music festivals throughout New Jersey, New York, and Ohio, and has recently become a Steinway Educational Partner. Students of Leising-Catalan have been accepted to schools that include Mark Twain School for the Gifted and Talented and the Genesis Program at Xaverian School for high-achieving students. Her teaching experience includes private lessons, group classes, and repertoire classes for children and adult students of all ages.
Leising-Catalan has a variety of accompanying experience, including vocalists, instrumentalists, and choirs.
Notable performances as soloist include Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and an appearance with the Kearney Area Symphony Orchestra as winner of the University of Nebraska at Kearney's Concerto/Aria Competition.
She is a member of Sing for Hope, a non-profit organization that strives to create outreach opportunities to connect artists to communities in need and to make the arts accessible to all.
Leising-Catalan earned a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Ohio University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Piano Performance with a Piano Pedagogy emphasis.
She is married to pianist/church musician Ramon Catalan. They reside in Astoria with their two musical daughters.