Tania León

"Aboundingly earthy, rhythmic and embellished by deeply moving nostalgia, [Scourge of Hyacinths] stands at the crossroads of every musical emotion. The constant pulsation and incessant murmur that seethes under the pure lines of song weave these different genres into magnificent bouquets....The direction by Robert Wilson creates a distance which, far from chilling the intention, makes it incandescent." Tribune de Genève
"[Indígena] is art of the highest order." The Boston Phoenix

Oct. 30, 2007 - Purchase College Conservatory of Music students perform León's A La Par for piano and percussion - Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase
Nov. 20-24, 2007 - El Arte de las Mujeres Como Agente de Cambio y Desarollo Social. International Congress of Women in the Arts. la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain.
Jan. 24, 2008 - Jade Simmons, piano in "The Rhythm Project", works by León, Corigliano, Ibarra, Barber, Piazzolla & Prokofiev. Concert Artists Guild, 850 Seventh Ave, NYC. 7:30PM
Feb. 17, 2008 - Two American Masters: George Walker and Tania León. String quartets and music for solo strings. Son Sonora Ensemble, Tania León, director with Airi Yoshioka, violin, Ashley Horne, violin, Liuh-Wen Ting, viola, Arash Amini, cello, and Sibylle Johner cello. Ingalls Recital Hall, New Jersey City University, 2039 Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ. 3PM
Feb. 29, 2008 - Purchase Symphony Orchestra presents "From the African Diaspora", Tania León, guest conductor. Program includes world premiere of a new work by Tania León as well as works by Revueltas, Ginastera and Ellington. Recital Hall, The Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, NY. 8PM
Mar. 27, 2008 - Terry Rhodes: "Modern Music of Latin America" featuring the world premiere of a new work by Tania León. Part of the music department's Latin Festival on the Hill, March 27-30. Memorial Hall, UNC-Chapel Hill, 7:30PM.
Mar. 28-30, 2008 - Orpheus Chamber Orchestra premieres a new work by Tania León. SUNY Purchase. 8PM
Mar. 30, 2008 - Chicago Sinfonietta, Tania León, guest conductor . Works by León, Zwilich, Chen Yi, Holmes & Haydn. Soloist Jade Simmons performs León's Kabiosile for piano and orchestra. Dominican University 2:30PM
Mar. 31, 2008 - Chicago Sinfonietta, Tania León, guest conductor . Works by León, Zwilich, Chen Yi, Holmes & Haydn. Soloist Jade Simmons performs León's Kabiosile for piano and orchestra. Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center. 220 South Michigan Ave. 7:30PM
Apr. 1, 2008 - Orpheus Chamber Orchestra premieres a new work by Tania León. Carnegie Hall, 8PM.
Apr. 3-5, 2008 - Keynote speaker at the 2008 College Music Society SuperRegional Conference Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Chapters. Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA.
Apr. 13, 2008 - Voces Latinas presented by Chicago a capella. Featuring the world premiere of a new work by Tania León. Nichols Concert Hall, Music Institute, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL. 7:30PM
Apr. 18, 2008 - Voces Latinas presented by Chicago a capella. Featuring the world premiere of a new work by Tania León. Gottlieb Hall at the Merit School of Music, 38 S. Peoria St., Chicago, IL. 8PM
Apr. 19, 2008 - Voces Latinas presented by Chicago a capella. Featuring the world premiere of a new work by Tania León. Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL. 8PM
Apr. 25-26, 2008 - Purchase Dance Corps Spring Concert 2008. Features choreography set to León's A La Par, Indigena and Arenas d'un Tiempo. PepsiCo Theatre, The Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, NY. 8PM. Also presented on April 27 at 3PM, May 2 & 3 at 8PM and May 4 at 3PM.
Apr. 30, 2008 - Contemporary Ensemble performs works by composer-in-residence Tania León and Justinian Tamasuza. Recital Hall, The Music Building, Purchase College, NY. 8PM
May 10-11, 2008 - Africa and the African Diaspora: Traditions, Revolutions and Innovations. Festival of arts and ideas featuring performances by the Purchase Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Tania León. Symphony Space, 95th St & Broadway, NYC. 10AM - 10PM

Biography

A vital personality on today's music scene, Tania León is highly regarded as a composer and conductor and is recognized for her contributions as an educator and advisor to arts organizations.

In March 2003, the Los Angeles Master Chorale premiered León's Rezos (Prayers), in Los Angeles and New York City. The work sets the words of Jamaica Kinkaid. In March 2001, León's opera Scourge of Hyacinths received three performances during the Festival Centro Historico in Mexico City. Staged and designed by Robert Wilson, and conducted by the composer, the work is based on a radio play by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka. The opera was commissioned in 1994 by the Munich Biennale, where it won the BMW Prize as best new work of opera theatre in the festival. In 1999, it was given seventeen performances to great acclaim by the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Switzerland, the Opèra de Nancy et de Lorraine in France and the St. Pálten Festspielhaus in Austria. The aria "Oh Yemanja" (Mother's Prayer) from Hyacinths was recorded by Dawn Upshaw on her Nonesuch CD "The World So Wide." She most recently performed it at the Ojai Festival in June 2001, where Ms. León was a featured composer.

León's Desde... was premiered by the American Composers orchestra in March 2000 in Carnegie Hall. Its composition was supported by a grant from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation. Horizons for orchestra was written for the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg and was premiered there at the July 1999 Hammoniale Festival, with Peter Ruzicka conducting. In August 2000, the work had its United States premiere at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Stefan Asbury conducting. León herself conducted the work with the Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy in March 2001.

Seven commissioned chamber works by León were premiered in the year 2000, in venues including the Library of Congress (Fanfarria, celebrating the Copland Centennial), the Kennedy Center (At the Fountain of Mpindelela, in the festival "Africa! Spirit Ascending"), New York City's Merkin Concert Hall (Canto, for baritone Tom Buckner and Continuum), and Joe's Pub at the Public Theater (Ivo, Ivo, for Sequitur).

A brief discography of León's music includes Indégena, an all-León collection of chamber music on CRI; the orchestral works Batá and Carabalá on the Louisville Orchestra's First Edition Records; Rituél, a solo piano work, on Albany Records; an arrangement of the Cuban song El Manisero for Chanticleer on Teldec; Journey for the Jubal Trio, also on CRI. Her music is also featured on Cendim, Newport Classic, Leonarda, Mode Opus One, and Urtext.

Born in Havana, León has lived in New York City since 1967. At the invitation of Arthur Mitchell, she became a founding member and the first musical director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, establishing the Dance Theatre's music department, music school, and orchestra. She instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series in 1978. From 1993 to 1997 she was New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. She served as Latin American Music Advisor to the American Composers Orchestra until 2001, during which time she co-founded the award-winning Sonidos de las Americas festivals.

León has received awards for her compositions from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, NYSCA, ASCAP, and Meet the Composer, among others. In 1998 she held the Fromm Residency at the American Academy in Rome; she has also been a resident at Yaddo (supported by a MacArthur Foundation Award), and to the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy.

León was the recipient in 2000 of the Tow Award at Brooklyn College, where she is Professor of Music. She received an Honorary Doctorate degree from Colgate University in 1999. She has held master-classes at the Hamburg Musikschule in Germany, and has been Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University and Visiting Professor of Composition at Yale University.