Recorded on September 19, 1985 as part of the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Speaking of Music series, the Cuban-born composer, Tania León, talks with Charles Amirkhanian before an enthusiastic audience at the McBean Theater in San Francisco, about her work as composer, conductor, concert producer, and arts activist. At 23, a graduate of the Havana Conservatory of Music, León moved to the United States where she was a co-founder of the Dance Theater of Harlem. She remained with the company until 1978 when she resigned to devote more time to composing. She has conducted orchestras in Germany, Italy, South Africa, The Netherlands, and New York, organized a number of concert series and festivals, taught at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Michigan, and is currently a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York. In this program she introduces a number of her pieces, ranging from works for solo piano, acappella chorus, orchestra, and jazz ensemble, as well as a lengthy excerpt from an experimental concert in which the audience members were invited to interact with the musicians on stage. |
