When Tania León celebrates her 80th birthday on May 14, she will be among company, conducting the Miami City Ballet in a program of works choreographed by Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine. There are seven performances in all, in West Palm Beach and Miami.
The ballet fittingly captures the swirl of activity surrounding León since she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2021. She was a Kennedy Center Honoree in December 2022. She has recently been named Composer-in-Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a two-year appointment, and will hold the Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall for the 2023-24 season. In addition, she has been honored with the Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University’s Bienen School for 2023. In these roles, León will curate programs, mentor young composers and conduct their works, and give master classes. The London Philharmonic will premiere a commissioned work in March 2024.
Later this month and in early June, León receives honorary degrees from universities in her extended New York City neighborhood: Columbia University (which has acquired León's archives), New Jersey City University, and Brooklyn College. This summer she will be a Featured Guest Composer of the Mizzou New Music Initiative. Alan Pierson will lead Alarm Will Sound in two of her works.
The London Philharmonic got a head start on León's residency with performances of Stride, her Pulitzer Prize-winning work, in London and Brighton this March under the baton of Dima Slobodeniouk. Stride was inspired by suffragete Susan B. Anthony, of whom León said, "it was tremendous to see the inner force that she had … She kept pushing and pushing and moving forward, walking with firm steps until she got the whole thing done. That is precisely what Stride means. Something that is moving forward." The work resonated with Claire Seymour in Seen and Heard International: "In Stride, León has somehow cohered fragmentation and momentum, the restlessness of the gestures embodying both resistance and progress." Full review.
peermusicclassical
classicalpromotion@peermusic.com
152 west 57th street
10th Floor
New York, NY 10019
tel: (212) 265-3910, x.117
Share this email:
Manage your preferences | Opt out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.
