Afro-Cuban Composer and Conductor Tania León, Nominated for GRAMMY Award, Was Born May 14, 1943

Tania Justina León

Tania León: In Motion; Albany Records Troy 1284

Musics of Latin America by Robin Moore, General Editor, and Walter Aaron Clark, Contributing Editor; W.W. Norton & Co. (2012). Includes the career of Tania León, which is featured in many other publications as well.

The website of the Afro-Cuban composer and conductor Tania Justina León, born in Havana, Cuba May 14, 1943, is http://www.tanialeon.com/; she is also profiled at AfriClassical.com.  At the composer's website we read:
TANIA LEÓN'S INURA IS A GRAMMY NOMINEE FOR "BEST CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITION" IN 55TH ANNUAL AWARDS CEREMONY

Albany Records:

Vibrant music for dance from the distinguished composer Tania León.

Tania León was born and raised in Cuba but her ancestry spans Europe, Africa, and Asia as well as the Americas. In the music she has been composing for the past four decades, she has absorbed all of these influences and transformed them into a vibrant synergistic totality that foreshadows the omnivorous polystylism of the early 21st century. More than 35 years separate Haiku (1973) and Inura (2009), and they conjure up wildly different sonic universes. Haiku, created during León’s tenure as composer-in-residence and music director for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is an aphoristic and almost otherworldly re-imagining of seventeen classical Japanese haiku poems, which somehow form a cohesive and unified whole. The holistic approach León took with Haiku would however be anathema for Inura, a celebration of contradictions created for DanceBrazil that is inspired by Candomblé. Candomblé, like Santería in the Caribbean, is a syncretism of traditional African animism and European Catholicism that has been practiced for centuries.

Contents:

Tania León, composer
Haiku for Narrator and Mixed Ensemble
Rajoe Darby, narrator, Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble, Tania León, conductor

Tania León, composer
Inura for Voices, Strings and Percussion
Son Sonora Voices, Son Sonora Ensemble, DanceBrazil Percussion, Tania León, conductor

Review:

"There is an allure in the music of Tania León that immediately grips the listener and demands his undivided attention, drawing him into her distinctive world." (Fanfare)

"The performances here are brilliant...These are compelling works." (American Record Guide)