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Interviews

Tania León: A Distinctly American Voice

March 9, 2023
Composer, Conductor Tania León

Cuban-American composer, conductor, and educator, Tania León's list of accolades and achievements set her apart in American Music History as well as Women's History. Her work has made an indelible impact in the sound and identity of American music.

Recently, León's orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music, and in 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. This year, she was awarded the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University.

This month, CMS welcomes audiences to experience one of this prolific composer's works live in Alice Tully Hall in our Voices of the Americas concert; fitting for a composer described by The Washington Post's Michael Andor Brodeur as having "... changed the sound of being American".

Composer, Conductor Tania León smiles into a Zoom camera during a 2020 interview with CMS for Composers in Focus.
Learn more about Tania León's contributions to chamber music and American music in her full CMS Composers in Focus interview including performances by CMS artists James Austin Smith, oboe; Ian David Rosenbaum, percussion; Orion Weiss, piano.

COMPOSERS IN FOCUS INTERVIEW