Tania León: "Inura," for Voices, Strings and Percussion; 3 Excerpts

1) "The Power" 2) (@ 02:32): "The Sharing" 3) (@ 06:23): "Teaching" Son Sonora Voices Judith Clurman, Director Son Sonora Ensemble/DanceBrazil Percussion Tania León, conductor from Albany TROY1284 http://www.albanyrecords.com Vibrant music for dance from the distinguished composer Tania León. Tania León was born and raised in Cuba but her ancestry spans Europe, Africa, and Asia as well as the Americas. She arrived in the United States in 1967. In the music she has been composing for the past four decades, she has absorbed all of these influences and transformed them into a vibrant synergistic totality that foreshadows the omnivorous polystylism of the early 21st century. More than 35 years separate Haiku (1973) and Inura (2009), and they conjure up wildly different sonic universes. Haiku, created during León's tenure as composer-in-residence and music director for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, is an aphoristic and almost otherworldly re-imagining of seventeen classical Japanese haiku poems, which somehow form a cohesive and unified whole. The holistic approach León took with Haiku would however be anathema for Inura, a celebration of contradictions created for DanceBrazil that is inspired by Candomblé. Candomblé, like Santería in the Caribbean, is a syncretism of traditional African animism and European Catholicism that has been practiced for centuries. Contents: Tania León, composer Haiku for Narrator and Mixed Ensemble Rajoe Darby, narrator, Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble, Tania León, conductor Tania León, composer Inura for Voices, Strings and Percussion Son Sonora Voices, Son Sonora Ensemble, DanceBrazil Percussion, Tania León, conductor