Tania León Cuban composer and orchestra conductor will receive distinction from the John F. Kennedy Center

July 22, 2022

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced this Thursday that Cuban-born composer and orchestra conductor Tania León will be among the artists who will receive the award given by the institution next December.

The center based in the United States typically honors five people annually for influencing American culture through the arts, but on occasions it recognizes the impact of groups, as in this case the rock band U2, which along with León, actor George Clooney and singers Gladys Knight and Amy Grant, make up the selected group in the 45th edition, according to a note from the AP agency published by the Yahoo! news portal.

Born in Havana and 79 years old, León is a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and has collaborated on several occasions with the Kennedy Center, in addition to being the recipient of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her orchestral work "Stride".

Tania León began her music studies at just four years old in the Cuban capital and at only 20 years old became a piano teacher, before later settling in the United States in 1967. There she continued her education.

In addition to being an instrumentalist and composer, León has developed an extensive pedagogical body of work for which she has given lectures at prestigious centers inside and outside the United States. Furthermore, she has been invited as a conductor by renowned orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, in Germany, among others.

The president of the Kennedy Center, David M. Rubenstein, said in reference to Tania León that she is "a brave and young Cuban refugee turned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and music ambassador, who has blessed the United States for more than five decades with her astonishingly original compositions and continues to be a great influence in classical music".

The award ceremony of the Kennedy Center will take place on December 4th during a gala that will be held in the American capital with the participation of great artists, according to an announcement by its organizers. It also came to light that the celebration will be recorded and broadcast nationally by the CBS television network, at a later date, the text specifies.