Issuu

Tania Leรณn del Caribe, soy! for Flute and Piano

del Caribe, soy! (“Caribbean, I am!”) for flute and piano is a work influenced by gestures in the music of the Caribbean cultures. This work is inspired by a series of improvisations by Nestor Torres, to whom the piece is dedicated. Flourishes with intricate piano writing and rapid passages in the flute open and close the work and appear throughout the piece, channeling the enchanted bird calls of the tropics. Sections of the work provides the flute soloist with the space to offer cadenza-like responses to the thematic material. —Tania León

Born in Havana, Cuba, composer and conductor Tania León came to the U.S. in 1967. At the invitation of Arthur Mitchell, she became a founding member and the first musical director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969, establishing the Dance Theatre’s music department, music school, and orchestra. She instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series in 1978. From 1993 to 1997 she was New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. She served as Latin American Music Advisor to the American Composers Orchestra until 2001, during which time she co-founded the award-winning Sonidos de las Americas festivals. More recently, León founded Composers Now, of which she is artistic director. Its festival every February brings together performances presented by concert music ensembles and presenters, musical theater and dance companies, as well as many innovative events throughout New York City. Composers Now has established a Creative Residencies program and has partnered with Italy’s Civitella Ranieri Foundation, providing a six-week residency for two composers each year. León has received awards for her compositions from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund, NYSCA, ASCAP, and Meet the Composer, among others. In 1998 she held the Fromm Residency at the American Academy in Rome; she has also been a resident at Yaddo (supported by a MacArthur Foundation Award), and to the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. In 2010 her set of songs To and Fro, recorded on Innova, was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award as Best Contemporary Composition. León has twice been the recipient of the Tow Award at Brooklyn College, where she is Professor of Music, for her distinguished teaching. She received an Honorary Doctorate from Colgate University in 1999. She has held master-classes at the Hamburg Musikschule in Germany, and has been Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University and Visiting Professor of Composition at Yale University.

to Nestor Torres

del Caribe, soy! Tania León (2014) q = 60

Flute

4 4

4 4 Piano

4 4 mf

Più mosso

A tempo

13 mp

A tempo

PiĂš mosso

(mp)

19 mf

Moderato (q = 68)

PiĂš mosso

2 4

4 4

2 4

4 4

2 4

cresc.

4 4