“Can You Imagine?”: Reflections on the Career of Tania León

“To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential,” hooks writes, “if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” An early stage of this work took place with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in the 1970s, where Tani...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican music review Vol. LI; no. 1
Main Author Oja, Carol J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Brooklyn H Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music 01.10.2021
Subjects
Careers
Classical music
Composers
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Cultural heritage
Diaspora
Musical performances
Musicians & conductors
Neighborhoods
Orchestras
Race
Role models
Teaching
Cuba
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:“To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential,” hooks writes, “if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” An early stage of this work took place with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in the 1970s, where Tania collaborated with the composers Julius Eastman and Talib Rasul Hakim to transport the orchestra beyond the concert hall, modeling community-based initiatives that have since become the norm for American orchestras. Composers Now, of which she is founder and artistic director, is the most recent manifestation of that impulse, as attested in its mission statement: “Composers Now empowers all living composers, celebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the significance of their artistic contributions to the cultural fabric of society.” When her mother was in her final years, the challenge was to find friends traveling to Cuba who could deliver basic necessities like prescription drugs, eye glasses, and new nightgowns.
ISSN:1943-9385
1943-9393