Tania León, American Composer

Tania León, American Composer

 

“I consider myself an American composer...because I have been born in the Americas.”
—Tania León

Tania León was born in Havana, Cuba in 1943 to parents of mixed descent (French, Spanish, African, Chinese). Her family was close-knit and worked together to support one another with limited financial resources. León’s grandmother insisted that the Peyrellade Conservatorio de Música of Havana accept her granddaughter at age four and from there she received a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree from the National Conservatory. She also completed studies in business in the event that her music career did not come to fruition.

León’s intensive music studies at the conservatory included an immersion into classical music, solfège and theory, as well as popular music and improvisation. She began her career as a concert pianist in Cuba. Though she loved Cuba, León felt her spirit was not an island spirit and longed to travel abroad to continue her studies. Her opportunity came when she was awarded a free flight to the United States in 1967 through the Freedom Flights program. She came to the United States alone and called this journey an “act of dreams and courage.” Though she had continued success in the United States as a concert pianist she felt that the long hours of isolated practice were keeping her from meaningful experiences and contributing more fully to the world.

León studied conducting and composition and in 1969 began a long and productive association as pianist, conductor and composer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Her compositional style is influenced by European classical music, American jazz, gospel and Latin American elements. Her music is rhythmic and colorful. Her writing for percussion instruments in noteworthy as she displays a keen awareness of the capabilities of the instruments and infuses her works with rhythms and instruments of Latin America, Africa and Europe.

Author Jennifer Kelly interviewed Tania León in her book, In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States, (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2013). In this collection of new interviews with twenty-five female composers, Tania León discusses her belief that humans love to have an artistic expression and she rejects the idea of music or people being put into a single category. She believes her music is an entity that she created through all of her experiences. León credits her success to being a product of exposure to the arts. She believes children should be given the opportunity to be creative from the very beginning and that role models in the arts should be highly visible to promote exposure to creativity. Studying in a conservatory, León says there were few people who looked like her, yet nobody ever talked about the fact that her skin was darker. They only talked about the person that won the competitions, Tania León.

León’s works have been performed by such orchestras as the Gewaundhausorchester, LOrchestre de la Suisse Romande and the China National Symphony. She has appeared as guest conductor with the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Marseille, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Asturias, the Symphony Orchestra of Johannesburg and the New York Philharmonic, among others.

León is an international figure in music and has lectured at Harvard University, was Visiting Professor at Yale University and was the Andrew Mellon Foundations Distinguished Scholar at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her numerous awards and honors include the New York Governors Lifetime Achievement Award Fellowships from the Koussevitzky, Fromm and Guggenheim Foundations.

Christie Miller is an active freelance musician, clarinetist. She has performed with many of Chicagolands finest ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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Sources
Kelly, Jennifer. In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States.
Champaign: University of Illinois, 2013. Print.

Oteri, Frank J. Tania León: What it Means to be an American Composer.
newmusicbox.org, 1999. website.

Spinazzola, James, M. An Introduction to the Music of Tania León and a Conductor’s Analysis of Indígena
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04042006-154742/unrestricted/Spinazzola_dis.pdf

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