Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES WintER 2014 sai-natiOnal.ORg 22 tania León Tania León is highly regarded as a composer and conductor and recognized for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. Born in Havana, she has been profiled on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Univision, Telemundo, and in independent films. León's opera Scourge of Hyacinths, based on a play by Wole Soyinka with staging and design by Robert Wilson, received over 20 performances throughout Europe and Mexico. Commissioned by Hans Werner Henze and the city of Munich for the Fourth Munich Biennale, it took home the coveted BMW Prize. e aria "Oh Yemanja" ("Mother's Prayer") was recorded by SAI Honorary Member Dawn Upshaw on her Nonesuch CD, e World So Wide. Commissions include works for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Koussevitzky Foundation, Fest der Kontinente (Hamburg, Germany), Cincinnati Symphony, National Endowment for the Arts, NDR (North German Radio) Sinfonie Orchester, American Composers Orchestra, e Library of Congress, Ensemble Modern, e Los Angeles Master Chorale, and e Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among others. Her works have been performed by such orchestras as the Gewaundhausorchester, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the China National Symphony, and the North German Radio Orchestra. She has collaborated with authors and directors including John Ashbury, Margaret Atwood, Rita Dove, Jamaica Kincaid, Mark Lamos, Julie Taymor, and Derek Walcott. León has appeared as guest conductor with the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Marseille, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Asturias, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota, the Gewaundhausorchester, Chamber Orchestra of Geneve, Switzerland, the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra, Mexico, Symphony Orchestra of Johannesburg, and the WaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, South Africa, as well as the Orquesta de la Comunidad y Coro de Madrid, and the New York Philharmonic, among others. She has lectured at Harvard University and at the prestigious Mosse Lecture series at the University of Humboldt in Berlin and was the Andrew Mellon Foundation's Distinguished Scholar at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa. León was also Visiting Professor at Yale University, Guest Composer/Conductor at the Hamburg Musikschule, Germany, and the Beijing Central Conservatory, China. A founding member of the Dance eatre of Harlem, León instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, co-founded the Sonidos de las Américas festivals with the American Composers Orchestra, and The 2012 IAMA winner Marilyn Devin (fourth from left) stands with Composer-Judge Linda Robbins Coleman, Orange County Alumnae Chapter members Mari Haig, Joan Kennedy, Bridget Bow, and Judy Tomlinson, Convention Accompanist Ann Patrick Green, and IAMA Composer-Judge John Heins. sai philanthropies, inC. 2015 iAmA Competition now Open s igma Alpha Iota Philanthropies, Inc. has announced the Composer-Judges and the genre style for the 2015 cycle of the Inter-American Music Awards Competition. Ms. Tania León and Dr. Daniel Brewbaker will serve as the judging team. Composers are invited to submit new works for SATB adult choir. A triennial composition competition established in 1948, the Inter- American Music Awards are open to composers residing in North, Central and South America, with no age limit. Two major American composers are invited to judge each IAMA competition. In addition to their judging responsibilities, the composer- judges each write a work to be published in the Sigma Alpha Iota IAMA series. Current or former students of either of the announced judges are ineligible to apply. For more information and application, visit sai-national.org. 2015 Iama Composer-Judges

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