Tania Leon, Conductor, is the composer of Scourge of Hyacinths, which received more than 22 performances in Germany, Switzerland, France and Mexico. Based on a radio play by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka, it was commissioned in 1994 by the Munich Biennale, where it wont he BMW prize as best new opera. Ms. Leon’s orchestral Desde… was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra March 2001 in Carnegie Hall. Horizons, written for the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg premiered at the July 1999 Hammoniale Festival, with Peter Ruzicka conducting. In August 2000, Horizons had its US premiere at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Stefan Asbury conducting. Leon conducted the work with the Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy (France) in March 2002. Drummin’, a full-length cross-cultural work for indigenous percussionists and orchestra, was commissioned and premiered in 1997 by Miami Light Project and the New World Symphony. It opened in the 1999 Hammoniale Festival, Hamburg.

Leon was a founding member and first Music Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, establishing their Music Department, Music School and Orchestra. She instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series in 1979 and in 1994 co-founded the American Composers Orchestra Sonidos de Las Americas Festivals as Latin American Music Advisor. From 1993 to 1997 she was New Music Advisor to Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Leon has been guest conductor with orchestras on three continents, and since 1985 has been the Tow Distinguished Professor at Brooklyn College.