Justine Leichtling

Multidisciplinary Residency Program | February 2026
Website | Social Media

About the work 

“In this moment in history, I want to express the experience of feeling alone in a heartbreaking world while at the same time honoring the connections with compassionate people that survive even the cruelest of circumstances. Being here at Centro Negra gives me hope and inspires me to create art that responds to the people and the environment around me. My work-in-progress is a musical collage using sounds I produce with my violin and voice, layered with sounds generated by my fellow artists and by the vibrant town that has so generously lent me a home for the past month. I will miss it after I leave, but I know that I will continue to hear traces of its sounds in my mind’s ear”.

BIO 

Justine Leichtling is a composer, violinist, and psychologist living in Brooklyn, New York. She writes unabashedly emotional music that combines acoustic instruments, voice, and electronics to evoke the raw sounds of our beautiful/ugly/tragic/joyous/hysterical human condition. Originally from San Francisco, California, Leichtling earned her BA in Computing and the Arts from Yale University, her PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute, and her MM in Composition from Mannes School of Music in New York. In addition to composing and performing, she maintains apsychotherapy practice. Leichtling often explores psychological themes in her music and seeks to capture emotional truth through sound. In her free time, you can find her attending live shows, writing poetry, or running in the park.