Tania León

Tania León (born May 14, 1943) is a Cuban-born American composer of both large scale and chamber works. She is also renowned as a conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations.
Early years and education
She was born Tania Justina León in Havana, Cuba, of mixed French, Spanish, Chinese, African, and Cuban heritage. It was her grandmother who recognized that her granddaughter liked music because of the way she reacted to music on the radio. She began studying the piano at the age of four and she attended Carlos Alfredo Peyrellade Conservatory, where she earned a B.A. in 1963, and the Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory, where she studied piano with Zenaida Manfugás. Leon was one of an estimated 300,000 Cubans who left Cuba as a refugee on the so-called "Freedom Flights". In the spring of 1967 she left Cuba and settled in New York City, continuing her studies at New York University under the tutelage of Ursula Mamlok (B.S., 1971; M.S., 1975).
Career
In 1969 León became a founding member and the first musical director of Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theater of Harlem, establishing its music department, music school, and orchestra. Her ballet compositions for that company include Haiku (1973), Dougla (with Geoffrey Holder, 1974) and Belé (with Geoffrey Holder; 1981).
She instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series in 1978 and in 1994 co-founded the American Composers Orchestra Sonidos de las Americas Festivals as Latin American Music Advisor. From 1993 to 1997, she was New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. She also served as Latin American Music Advisor to the American Composers Orchestra until 2001. In March 2001 her orchestral work Desde... was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
She has been a guest conductor with the Beethovenhalle Orchestra, Bonn; the Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig; the Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Rome; the National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa, Johannesburg; the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Netherlands; and the New York Philharmonic, among others.
León's opera Scourge of Hyacinths, based on a radio play by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, was commissioned in 1994 by the Munich Biennale, where it won the BMW Prize as best new opera. Staged and designed by Robert Wilson with León conducting, it has received over 22 performances in Germany, Switzerland, France and Mexico. The aria "Oh Yemanja" from Scourge was recorded by Dawn Upshaw on her Nonesuch CD The World So Wide.
León's composition Horizons, written for the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg, premiered at the July 1999 Hammoniale Festival, with Peter Ruzicka conducting. In August 2000, Horizons had its U.S. premiere at the Tanglewood Music Festival, with Stefan Asbury conducting. León conducted the work with the Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy (France) in March 2002.
Drummin''', a full-length cross-cultural work for indigenous percussionists and orchestra, was commissioned and premiered in 1997 by Miami Light Project and the New World Symphony Orchestra. It opened the 1999 Hammoniale Festival in Hamburg.
In February 2019, the New York Philharmonic performed the world premiere of her composition Stride for orchestra.
León's recorded works include Batá, by the Foundation Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Snell and produced by Sir George Martin; Indígena, a collection of León's chamber music; Carabalí (and already Batá) on the Louisville Orchestra’s First Edition Records; Rituál, for solo piano, and her arrangement of Moises Simons' song "El Manisero" for Chanticleer.
Tania León used award-winning Cuban-American poet Carlos Pintado’s poems to create Rimas Tropicales with a World premiere in June 2011 by one of the world's most respected vocal ensembles: the 5 times Grammy Award-winning group the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
Awards, honors and recognition
In 1998 León was awarded the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award. She has received honorary doctorates from Colgate University and Oberlin College and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, NYSCA, the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, ASCAP, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and Meet the Composer, among others. In 1998, she held the Fromm Residency at the American Academy in Rome.
León has also been a resident at Yaddo (supported by a MacArthur Foundation Award), and at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. She has also been a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University, Visiting Professor at Yale University and the Musikschule in Hamburg.
In 2000 she was named the Tow Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, where she has taught since 1985. Brooklyn College is one of the senior colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she is also on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center, in Manhattan.
León has been the subject of profiles on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Univision and independent films.
In 2010, her work was performed in Cuba for the first time at the second annual Leo Brouwer Festival of Chamber Music. In 2010 and 2012, she was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. She is the only Cuban and Cuban-American musician ever to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (2013).
She won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Stride, making her the first African-American woman composer to win the award.
In 2022, Tania was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight and the members of U2.
Works
Chamber worksA la Par, piano and percussionÁcana, chamber orchestraAlma, flute and pianoAscend, brass ensembleAxon, violin and electronicsBele, chamber orchestraDe Color, violin and marimbaDe Memorias, woodwind quintetDougla, large mixed ensembleDrummin' , chamber orchestraentre nos, clarinet, bassoon, pianoEscencia, string quartetEthos, piano and string quartetFour Pieces for Cello, violoncello soloHaiku, percussion ensemble, large mixed ensembleHechizos, chamber orchestraIndigena, large mixed ensembleMaggie Magalita, large mixed ensemblePaisanos Semos!, guitar soloParajota Delate, mixed quintetPermutation Seven, mixed sextetPet's Suite, flute and keyboardSaoko, brass quintetsin normas ajenas, large mixed ensembleSon Sonora, flute and guitarThe Beloved, large mixed ensembleThe Golden Windows, large mixed ensembleTones, chamber orchestraToque, clarinet, alto sax, piano, percussionists, violin, and double bass
Orchestral worksBataCarabaliConcerto Criollo, piano, solo timpani and orchestraDesde...HorizonsKabiosile, piano and orchestraPara Viola y Orquesta, solo viola and orchestraStride (2019) for orchestra
Vocal worksBatey, vocal ensemble and instrumental ensembleDe-Orishas, vocal ensemble (6 to 12 singers)Drume Negrita, mixed chorusEl Manisero, mixed chorusInura, mixed choir, strings, and percussionIvo, Ivo, high voice and ensembleJourney, high voice and ensembleOh Yemanja (Mother's Prayer), medium voice and ensemblePueblo Mulato, high voice and ensembleReflections, soprano and mixed ensemble (text from poems by Rita Dove)Rezos, mixed choir (text from Jamaica Kincaid)Singin' Sepia, medium voice and ensemble (text from poems by Rita Dove)Sol de Doce, vocal ensemble (6 to 12 singers),To and Fro, medium voice
Solo piano2 Preludes (1966)Momentum (1984)Rituál (1987)Mística (2003)Variation (2004?)La Tina (2004?)Concert BandAlegre (2003)OperaScourge of HyacinthsFilms
1993 – The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers – Laurie Anderson, Tania León, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros''. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
References
External links
Tania León
Peermusic Classical: Tania Leon Composer's Publisher and Bio
Discography
Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music
"Tania Justina León, Afro-Cuban Composer, Conductor & Professor", at AfriClassical.com
Interviews
The unplanned, unstoppable career of composer Tania León. Interviewed by Tom Huizenga, December 2, 2022.
1943 births
Living people
Harvard University staff
21st-century classical composers
20th-century classical composers
Cuban classical composers
Cuban opera composers
Brooklyn College faculty
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development alumni
Women in electronic music
Cuban women conductors (music)
American women conductors (music)
Cuban women classical composers
Women opera composers
20th-century conductors (music)
21st-century conductors (music)
Cuban conductors (music)
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
Women in Latin music
Pulitzer Prize for Music winners
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Kennedy Center honorees
City University of New York faculty