“For the first time since she left for the United States nearly 50 years ago, the composer and conductor Tania León will perform in her native Cuba later this month, conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba in a program featuring” her composition Indígena, writes Michael Cooper in Monday’s (11/1) New York Times. “Ms. León, 73, said … she lamented that her mother, who died two years ago, would not be there to see her performance at the National Theater in Havana on Nov. 13. Ms. León, who left Cuba in 1967 to pursue music … became a founding member of the Dance Theater of Harlem and its first music director; conducted many orchestras; and worked as the music director of theater pieces as varied as ‘The Wiz’ on Broadway and works by Robert Wilson…. She is returning to take part in the Havana Festival of Contemporary Music, which was founded by the conductor and composer Guido López-Gavilán … Ms. León … grew up hearing [Cuba’s] National Symphony Orchestra [and co-founded] the Sonidos de las Américas festival with the American Composers Orchestra more than 20 years ago…. She said … going back to conduct her music in her native land is … ‘spectacular.’ ”
Posted November 2, 2016
