Sigma Alpha Iota

saI-NaTIONal.ORg WINTER 2015 PAN PIPES 25 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 is the founder of the Composers Now festival in New York City. She also served as Latin American Advisor to the American Composers Orchestra and New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic. Her honors include the New York Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award, Symphony Space's Access to the Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and the Fromm, Koussevitzky, and Guggenheim Fellowships. In 2012 she received both a Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Classical Composition) and a Latin Grammy nomination (for Best Classical Contemporary Composition), and, in 2013, she was the recipient of the prestigious 2013 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Victor Herbert Award. León has also received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin, and SUNY Purchase College, and has served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A Professor at Brooklyn College since 1985, she was named Distinguished Professor of the City University of New York in 2006. In 2010 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dr. León has been selected as one of the Composer/Judges for the SAI Inter-American Music Awards Competition and will have a world premiere at the 2015 National Convention in St. Louis. PAUl ROwE Paul Rowe was initiated as a National Arts Associate by the Rho Chapter in October. Baritone Paul Rowe has maintained a wide ranging performing career throughout the United States for the past 20 years. He has performed with many of the leading American musical organizations including the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York, American Ballet eater at the Metropolitan Opera and Kennedy Center, and Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. He has appeared as well with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Alabama and Arkansas symphony orchestras, the Folger Consort, and the Ensemble for Early Music, among many other groups. As a member of the Waverly Consort, Rowe toured the United States, the Far East and South America and participated in the Consort's regular series at Alice Tully Hall and the Cloisters in New York. In addition, he performed for two years as a member of the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, touring the U.S. and Yugoslavia and recording albums. He has sung at various summer festivals including Marlboro, Aspen, Flagstaff Festival of the Arts, Hot Springs and Sewanee. Paul Rowe has served on the voice faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Vanderbilt University, State University of New York at Purchase, Lehigh University and Nazareth College of Rochester, the Berkshire Choral Festival, and the Tennessee State Governor's School. Rowe is Professor of Voice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Artistic Director of the Madison Early Music Festival, an annual festival he helped found in 2000 with his wife and fellow National Arts Associate Cheryl Bensman-Rowe. PETER STRUmmER Peter Strummer was initiated as a National Arts Associate by the Tulsa Alumnae Chapter in October. Peter Strummer was born in Vienna, Austria, and spent his childhood in Winnipeg, Manitoba, before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia. To further his music education, he immigrated to the United States where he attended the Cleveland Institute of Music. His early operatic debuts included Le Nozze Di Figaro with the Atlanta Symphony, Tosca with the Minnesota Opera Center, and debuts with Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera and Opera eatre of St. Louis. Having established the foundation of his career in the United States, Strummer began a 12-year career in Germany and Austria during which time he appeared on the stages of many prominent opera houses throughout Europe. Multilingual, he is equally comfortable performing in German, Italian, French, English, Czech, and Russian. In addition, many of his numerous performances in Europe have been broadcast on radio and television. In a career spanning several decades as one of America's foremost character bass-baritones, dISTINgUIShEd mEmBERS DISTINgUIShED continued on page 26

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