About Tania León

LONG BIOGRAPHY

Tania León (b. Havana, Cuba), a vital personality on today’s music scene, is highly regarded as a composer and conductor and for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. She has been the subject of profiles on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, BB3, Telemundo, independent films, and Univision, including their noted series “Orgullo Hispano,” which celebrates living American Latinos whose contributions in society have been invaluable. In July 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements, along with George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, and U2. In 2023, she was awarded the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University. Most recently, León became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s next Composer-in-Residence—a post she will hold for two seasons, beginning in September 2023. She will also hold Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for its 2023-2024 season.

León’s orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in celebration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Recent premieres include Ser for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Pasajes for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Symphony; Ritmicas for The Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition's Grossman Ensemble; Anima for Jennifer Koh’s Alone Together in response to the Coronavirus pandemic; Mujer, Define Mujer for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus with lyrics by N.Y. Young Poet Laureate Aaliyah C. Daniels; and Pa’lante for the International Contemporary Ensemble and YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). In May 2022, Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt, Germany) performed Happy New Ears, a portrait of composer Tania León, and in June 2022, León was a Featured Composer at the Kreatives Multitasking conference (Basel, Switzerland), with works performed by the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo and ensemble oktopus.

Appearances as guest conductor include Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Gewandhausorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, among others. Upcoming commissions feature Upcoming commissions feature a work for the League of American Orchestras, and a work for Claire Chase, flute, and The Crossing Choir with text by Rita Dove.

León's opera Scourge of Hyacinths, based on a play by Wole Soyinka with staging and design by Robert Wilson, received over 20 performances throughout Europe and Mexico. Commissioned by Hans Werner Henze and the city of Munich for the Fourth Munich Biennale, it took home the coveted BMW Prize, and the aria “Oh Yemanja” (“Mother's Prayer”) was recorded by Dawn Upshaw on her Nonesuch CD, The World So Wide.

Past commissions include works for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Arts, NDR Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Fest der Kontinente (Hamburg, Germany), The Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, Los Angeles Master Chorale, DanceBrazil, and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

León’s compositions have been performed by such orchestras and ensembles as the Gewandhausorchester, NDR Symphony Orchestra, and Ensemble Modern (Germany);

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Basel Sinfonietta (Switzerland); London Sinfonietta (England); China National Symphony; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy (France); and Orquesta del Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico).

León has collaborated with poets, writers and directors, including John Ashbery, Margaret Atwood, Rita Dove, Wendy Kesselman, Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Lamos, Fae Myenne Ng, Julie Taymor, Derek Walcott, and Robert Wilson.

Past highlights include a Composer Portrait at Columbia University's Miller Theatre in New York City, and the hour-long, multimedia work Drummin', featuring percussionists of diverse cultures and performed by New World Symphony in Miami and members of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany. León was one of the first artists to be featured by Harlem Stage in Aaron Davis Hall’s initiative WaterWorks, and her work was featured in the celebration of some of the most prestigious composers of our time, including Pierre Boulez’s 80th birthday, “Gyorgy Ligeti’s 80th Birthday, and the Copland Centennial. 

As a guest conductor, Tania León has appeared with the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Marseille and Colonne Orchestra (France), Beethovenhalle Orchestra (Germany), Geneva Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland), Orquesta Sinfonica de Asturias and Orquesta y Coro de la Communidad de Madrid (Spain), Santa Cecilia Orchestra (Italy), Sadler's Wells Orchestra (England), Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá (Colombia), Orquesta Sinfónica de El Salvador (El Salvador), Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra (South Africa), and the New York Philharmonic, among others. 

In 1969, Tania León became a founding member and first Music Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, establishing the Dance Theatre’s Music Department, Music School and Orchestra. She instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series in 1978, and founded the Sampler Concerts series presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art at Atria. In 1994, in her capacity of Latin American Music Advisor, she co-founded the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas festivals. From 1993 to 1997, she was New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. 

Tania León is the founder and Artistic Director of the nonprofit organization and festival Composers Now, created in New York City in 2010. Composers Now is dedicated to the empowerment of living composers by celebrating the diversity of their voices and honoring the significance of their artistic contributions to the cultural fabric of society. In 2017, a proclamation on behalf of Mayor Bill de Blasio was presented to Composers Now in recognition of their contributions to living composers (composersnow.org).

León has lectured at the prestigious Mosse-Lectures at Humboldt-University in Berlin and at Harvard University and University of Chicago. In 2012, she was the Andrew Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Scholar at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has been Visiting Professor at Yale University, Chicago University, University of Michigan, University of Kansas, Purchase College, and the Musikschule in Hamburg, Germany, among others, and she served as Composer’s Mentor at the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute. She was also a Guest Composer/Conductor at the Musikschule in Hamburg, and at Central Conservatory of music in Beijing, China. In 2020, she was the Robert M. Trotter Lecturer at College Music Society.

León has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin, SUNY Purchase College, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A Professor at Brooklyn College and at The Graduate Center, CUNY since 1985, she was named the Claire and Leonard Tow Professor in Music in 2000, Distinguished Professor of the City University of New York in 2006, and Professor Emerita in September 2019.

Honors include the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award; American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Music; fellowships and awards from The Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, NYSCA, Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, ASCAP and Meet the Composer; Symphony Space's Access to the Arts; and artist residencies at Bellagio, Citivella Ranieri, MacDowell, and the American Academy in Rome in Italy, among others. León was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010 and the American Academy of Arts and sciences in 2018. Inura for voices, strings and percussion received nominations from the Grammy’s and the Latin Grammy’s “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” in 2012. León is also the recipient of the 2013 ASCAP Victor Herbert Award, the 2017 MadWoman Festival Award in Music in Madrid, Spain, and a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship, and the Chamber Music America’s 2022 Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award for her significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field. Most recently, she received the Harvard University’s 2022 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award.

León serves as an honorary chair for the Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing. She is a Member of the Boards of Directors of New York Philharmonic and The ASCAP Foundation.

In 2023, Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library acquired Tania’s León’s archive.

conducting and music directing engagements

2015-2022:

Sybarite 5, Hometown to the World, an opera by Laura Kaminsky, Town Hall.

Dance Theatre of Harlem 50th Anniversary Season. City Center Theater, New York

Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration. The Harlem Chamber Players. Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, New York

The Orchestra della Scala Aretina. Gala Concert. Madwomen Awards, Madrid, Spain

Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Cuba

Ojai Music Festival, CA

ICE and Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles

Bangkok Philharmonic Orchestra, Thailand

International Contemporary Ensemble, New York

2010-2015:

Orquesta Sinfonica de Guanajuato, Mexico

Da Capo Players, Merkin Concert Hall, New York

Continuum, Merkin Concert Hall, New York

Da Capo Players, Merkin Concert Hall, New York

Johannesburg Academy Orchestra, Johannesburg, South Africa
Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, Durban, South Africa

Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble, New York
Son Sonora Ensemble and Voices, New York

DanceBrazil Percussion, New York

Bogota Philharmonic, Bogota, Colombia

2005-2010:

Chamber Orchestra of Geneva, Switzerland 

Son Sonora Chamber Orchestra, Dance Brazil, Skirball, NYC

Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago

Beijing Central Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, China

Symphony Orchestra of Asturias, Spain

Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, ND 

Shangri La, an opera by Susie Ibarra, The Kitchen, New York 

Symphony Orchestra of Marseille, France

2000-2005: 

New York University Symphony 

Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Spain 

Symphony Orchestra of Marseille, France 

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Madrid Symphony Orchestra, Madrid 

Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid, Spain 

Candide, an opera by Leonard Bernstein. Fort Worth Opera, TX 

Scourge of Hyacinths, an opera by Tania León. Orquesta de la Opera, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico 

Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy, France

Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Rome, Italy

Polten Opera House, Austria

1990-2000:

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (1990-present) 

Scourge of Hyacinths, an opera by Tania León. Geneva Grand Opera, Switzerland; Nancy Opera House, France; St. Poelten, Austria 

Drummin', Hammoniale Festival der Frauen, Hamburg, Germany 

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester, Halle, Germany 

Drummin', New World Symphony, Miami, FL 

Akron Symphony Orchestra, OH

The Lion King, Music Director/Conductor. Workshop Production. Walt Disney Theatricals 

New York Philharmonic 

The Voyage, by Philip Glass. Cover conductor for the Metropolitan Opera 

Savannah Symphony, GA 

Charlotte Symphony, NC 

Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, PA 

Orquesta Sinfonica de El Salvador 

Schwerin Symphony Orchestra, Germany 

American Composers Orchestra, “Sonidos de las Americas,” New York