Tania Justina León Ferrán

Cuban pianist and orchestral conductor with a vital personality on the current musical scene, she is a composer and conductor of great prestige recognized for her achievements as an educator and advisor to artistic organizations. In 2021 she obtained the Pulitzer Prize for musical composition.

Daughter of Oscar León and Dora Ferrán, she descends from French, Spanish, Chinese, African, and Cuban ancestors. Encouraged by her grandparents, when she was 4 years old she began taking piano lessons at the private Peyrellade conservatory in Havana.

"My grandfather bought me a real piano when I was 5 years old. You have to be crazy to do that," Tania has said.

In 1961 she obtained the title of professor of theory and solfège at that school. In 1963—at twenty years of age—she obtained her piano professorship. She continued studying composition at the National Conservatory of Cuba in Havana, where the following year (1964) she obtained a degree in music education. In case her musical career did not bear fruit, her parents convinced her to study accounting and business administration at the free University of Havana, where she obtained a degree the following year (1965).

In 1967 she decided to leave Cuba to study. Her grandmother—who had been the main promoter of her musical beginnings—asked her to stay: "I told her to have faith, that I would return as a musician. I never forgot that conversation."

Although she wanted to travel to Paris, that year (1967) she obtained a free airplane ticket to Miami as part of the Freedom Flights. After Tania León left Cuba, she never saw her grandmother again, as she died four years later. León has traveled to the island through the years to visit her mother.

She settled in New York, where she obtained a scholarship to study at New York University. She obtained a BS degree (in 1971), a bachelor's degree in Music Education (in 1973), and a master's degree in Composition (in 1975).

She studied composition with Úrsula Mamlok (1928-), orchestral conducting with Laszlo Halasz and Vincent La Selva. In 1978 she took an orchestral conducting course at Tanglewood (Massachusetts) with Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and Seiji Ozawa (1935-).

While studying composition, she also studied trombone and bassoon, and continued performing as a pianist. In 1967 and 1968 she performed with the New York College Music Orchestra, in 1969 with the New York University Orchestra, and in 1973 with the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra. Despite this immediate success as a concert pianist, León felt that her time was monopolized by the extensive hours she dedicated to practicing her technique. This contributed to her career change, from performer to orchestral conductor.

If I had continued with piano, I would not have been able to use my time as effectively as I am using it now. I would have had to dedicate hours and hours to practicing, until I was sure that my technique was impeccable. However, technically I can still sit down and play.

In 1969, at the invitation of dancer Arthur Mitchell (1934-), Tania León became a founding member and first musical director of Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theater in Harlem, where she established 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).

In 1978, at the invitation of Lukas Foss, of whom she was assistant conductor, she founded together with composers Julius Eastman and Talib Hakim the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series.

In the eighties she was musical director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. In 1985 she was composer-in-residence at the Lincoln Center Institute. That year she began teaching at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, one of the largest colleges of CUNY (City University of New York). León also works on the faculty of CUNY's Graduate Center in Manhattan, New York.

In 1986 she was musical director and orchestra director of the Whitney Museum's contemporary music series. In 1987 she was named artistic director of the Composers Forum Inc. of New York.

Drummin', a transcultural work for indigenous percussionists and orchestra, was commissioned and premiered in 1997 by the Miami Light Project and the New World Symphony Orchestra. The Hammoniale Festival of Hamburg opened its doors in 1999.

In 1994, while serving as artistic advisor for Latin American music of the ACO (American Composers Orchestra), she co-founded with Dennis Russell Davies the "Sonidos de las Americas" festivals.

Between 1993 and 1997 she was new music advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. She also served as advisor on Latin American music for the American Composers Orchestra until 2001. In March 2001, the American Composers Orchestra premiered her orchestral work Desde at Carnegie Hall.

She has been a guest conductor of many orchestras around the world:
the American Composers Orchestra Chamber Ensemble
the Beethovenhalle Orchestra (symphony orchestra of the Ludwig van Beethoven hall) in Bonn (Germany)
the New York Philharmonic
the Gewandhaus of Leipzig (Germany)
the Metropolitan Opera
the National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa in Johannesburg
the Netherlands Winds Ensemble
the New World Symphony
the New York Philarmony Orchestra
the Opera Orchestra of Johannesburg
the Orchester-Akademie of Hamburg, Germany
the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome
the Symphony Orchestra of El Salvador
L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
the Netherlands Wind Ensemble in Holland

She has been composer-in-residence at various centers, including:
National Black Music Festival
Centro Bellagio (Italy)
Hamburg Musikschule
The New School (New York)
Scripps College
Claremont (California)
Fromm Residency (Rome)
Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida)

In 1994, the Munich Biennial (Germany) commissioned her to write an opera. Tania León presented Scourge of Hyacinths, based on the radio play by writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. With that work she won the BMW award for best new opera. Directed and designed by Robert Wilson with orchestral direction by León, it has been presented more than 22 times in Germany, Switzerland, France, and Mexico. Singer Dawn Upshaw recorded the aria "Oh, Iemanshá" from the Plague on her CD The World So Wide (from the Nonesuch label).

León's composition Horizons, written for the NDR Hamburg Symphony Orchestra (Germany), premiered at the Hammoniale festival in July 1999, conducted by Peter Ruzicka. In August 2000 it premiered in the United States at the Tanglewood Music Festival, conducted by Stefan Asbury. In March 2002, Tania León conducted it with the Nancy Symphony Orchestra (France).

Works recorded by León include Batá, by the Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation, conducted by David Snell and produced by George Martin (1926-); Indígena, a collection of chamber music by León; Carabalí (and Batá) on the First Edition Records label by the Louisville Orchestra; Ritual for solo piano, and her arrangement of the song El manisero by Moisés Simons (1889-1945) for Chanticleer.

Tania León used poems by the award-winning Cuban-American poet Carlos Pintado to create Rimas tropicales. In June 2011, the San Francisco Girls Chorus—one of the world's most respected vocal ensembles, five-time Grammy Award winner—performed its world premiere.

Awards, Honors and Recognition

In 1998, Tania León received the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award. She has received honorary doctorates from Colgate University (1999) and Oberlin College and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, NYSCA (New York State Council on the Arts), the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), Meet the Composer, and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, among others. In 1998, she held the Fromm residency at the American Academy in Rome.

León has also been a resident at Yaddo (sponsored by a MacArthur Foundation grant) and at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Italy. She has also been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, visiting professor at Yale University and the Musikschule in Hamburg (Germany).

In 2000, she was named Claire and Leonard Tow Professor at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, where she has taught since 1985.

León has been the subject of television programs on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Univisión (appeared in the series Hispanic Pride which celebrates Latin American-origin Americans whose contribution to society has been invaluable), Telemundo, and in independent films.
1991: American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
1992 and 1995: Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Commission
1993: American Academy of Arts and Letters recording Grant
1994: New York State Council Award for the Arts Commission
1997: The American Music Center's Letter of Distinction

In 2010 her works were performed in Cuba for the first time at the second edition of the Leo Brouwer Festival of Chamber Music, organized by Leo Brouwer (1939-), a recognized Cuban composer and orchestra conductor. In a session titled "Cuban Women in Other Lands" Alma (composition for flute and piano) from 2007 and Arenas de un tiempo were presented. The festival took place at the historic Convent of San Francisco de Asís in Old Havana. Present was León's mother, Dora Ferrán, 85 years old at that time.

In 2010, her work "To and fro (4 moods)" from the CD Sonidos cubanos received a Latin Grammy Award in the category of best contemporary classical composition.

In 2021, León was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her work Stride, which premiered in February 2020 at the Lincoln Center. The jury described the work as: "A musical journey full of surprises, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate the traditions of African American music from the United States and the Caribbean in a Western orchestral fabric."

Works

Chamber Works
1970: Tones (ballet), chamber orchestra
1972: The beloved (ballet, in collaboration with Judith Hamilton), large mixed ensemble
1973: Haiku (ballet), percussion ensemble, and large mixed ensemble
1979: Latin lights for chamber ensemble
1980: Maggie Magalita, large mixed ensemble; incidental music for Wendy Kesselman's play
1980: Pet's suite, flute and piano
1981: Belé (ballet), chamber orchestra
1981: Permutation seven for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, and cello
1981: Cello Sonata for cello and piano
1983: Ascend for four cornets, three trombones, tuba, and three percussionists
1983: Four pieces for cello solo
1984: ¡Paisanos semos! (We's hillbillies) for solo guitar
1985: Permutation seven version for chamber ensemble and audience
1986: A la par for piano and percussion
1988: Parajota delaté for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano
1988: Parajota delaté version for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and piano
1989: Journey for violin, harp, and flute
1990: To and fro for violin and piano
1991: Indígena for chamber orchestra
1992: Arenas de un tiempo for clarinet, cello, and piano
1992: Crossings for cornet, four trumpets, four trombones, and tuba
1993: Son sonora for flute and guitar
1994: Sin normas ajenas for chamber ensemble
1995: Hechizos for large chamber orchestra
1996-1997: De color for violin
1997: Saoko for brass
A la par piano and percussion
Acana, chamber orchestra
Ascend, brass ensemble
De color, violin and marimba
De memorias, wind quintet
Dougla, large mixed ensemble
Drummin' chamber orchestra
Entre nos, clarinet, bassoon, and piano
Esencia, string quartet
Indígena, large mixed ensemble
Parajota delate, mixed sextet
Permutation seven, mixed sextet
Pet's suite, flute and keyboards
Saoko, brass quintet
Sin normas ajenas, large mixed ensemble
Son sonora, flute and guitar
1982: The golden windows, three-act play by Robert Wilson; for large mixed ensemble.

Orchestral Works
1980: Concerto criollo, piano, solo timpani (or eight timpani) and orchestra
1980: Pet's suite
1985: Batá
1988: Kabiosile, piano and orchestra
1991: Carabalí, orchestral extravaganza with Cuban rhythms and Stravinsky-like timbre
1994: For viola and orchestra, solo viola and orchestra
1995: Seven spirituals for violin and orchestra
Desde...
Horizons
2019: Stride for symphony orchestra

Vocal Works
1974: Namiac poems for soloist, chorus, and orchestra
1975: Spiritual suite for soloist, chorus, narrator, and mixed instrumental ensemble
1980: I Got Ovah for soprano, piano, and percussion
1982: De orishás, vocal ensemble (6 to 12 singers)
1987: Pueblo mulato for soprano, oboe, guitar, double bass, percussion, and piano
1988: Heart of Ours: A Piece for male chorus, flute, four trumpets, and two percussionists; with text by
1989: Batey for vocal ensemble and percussion, in collaboration with Dominican pianist Michel Camilo
1990: Journey for soprano, flute, and harp
1990: To and fro for mezzo-soprano and piano
1994: Or like a... for baritone, cello, and percussion
1996: Singin' sepia for clarinet, violin, and four-hand piano
1997: Bety Neals
1997: Sol de doce for vocal ensemble (6 to 12 singers); text: Pedro Mir
Drume negrita, mixed chorus
El manisero, mixed chorus
Ivo, Ivo, high voice, and ensemble
Oh Iemanshá (Mother's Prayer), middle voice and ensemble

Solo Piano
1966: Ensayos sobre una toccata
1966: Prelude No. 1 ("Surprise")
1966: Prelude No. 2 ("Fishbowl")
1987: Ritual
1987: Homage to Prokofiev
Momentum

Opera
1974: La ramera de la cueva (musical theater), text: M. Pena
Sailor's boat (musical theater)
1994: Scourge of Hyacinths, two-act opera; text: Wole Soyinka

Films
1993: The sensual nature of sound. 4 composers: Laurie Anderson, Tania León, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros. Directed by Michael Blackwood.

Discography
Several of her works have been recorded by the following record labels:

Albany Records
Composers Recordings Incorporated
First Edition Recordings
Leonarda Records
Mode
Newport Classics
Nonesuch
Opus One Label
Teldec