Léonard Frey-Maibach was born in 1991 in Lyon into a family of musicians and began his cello studies with Fernando Rapetti, soloist with the Lyon National Orchestra, and then at the Lyon Conservatory with Patrick Gabard. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Roland Pidoux and Xavier Phillips, then at the Leopold Mozart Zentrum in Augsburg with Professor Julius Berger. In 2012 he joined the Munich Philharmonic Academy under Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta.

In 2014, he developed his international career by obtaining the position of principal cello at the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, under the direction of Ricardo Chailly. He is regularly invited to play in the same position at the Dresden Staatskapelle, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Munich Philharmonic, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the legendary Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.

From 2015 to 2018 he performed chamber music with the prestigious Gewandhaus Quartett at major festivals, in Asia at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Osaka, the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall and the Shanghai Opera, in Europe at the Gewandhaus Leipzig and the Mendelssohn Haus, and in Latin America at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile.

Since 2016, the cellist is the co-artistic director of the interdisciplinary ensemble Juliette Rahon & Co. Léonard Frey-Maibach is also a professor at the Mendelssohn-Orchesterakademie and a tutor at the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.

In 2020 he was invited to join the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as first cello soloist.

Leonard plays a cello by Nicolas Lupot from 1810 and modern bows by Bergeron père et fils in Lyon.