Leonardo Balada Click here for photographs Download Mr. Balada's biography (MS Word) Composer Born in Barcelona, Spain, on September 22, 1933, he graduated from the "Conservatorio del Liceu" of that city and the Juilliard School in 1960. He studied composition with Vincent Persichetti, Aaron Copland and conducting Igor Markevitch. Since 1970 he has been teaching at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is University Professor of Composition. Some of his best known works were written in a dramatic avant-garde style in the sixties ("Guernica", "Maria Sabina", "Steel Symphony"). He is credited with pioneering a blending of ethnic music with those avant-garde techniques later on, creating a very personal style starting with "Sintonia en Negro- Homage to Martin Luther King"(1968), and "Homage to Casals and Sarasota" 1975). Balada has received several international awards. Balada's works are being performed by the world's 1eading orchestras, such as the Philharmonics of New York, Los Angeles, Israel; the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the symphonies of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit, Dallas, Washington D.C., Prague, Diisseldorf, Barcelona, and Mexico; the radio orchestras of Leipzig, Berlin, Bem, Madrid, Hanover, Moscow, Helsinki, Luxembourg, BBC, Jerusalem; the National Orchestras of Spain, Lyon, Toulouse, Marseille, Ireland etc... conducted by artists like L. Maazel, M. Rostropovlteh, Fruhbeck de Burgos, Lopez-Cobos, Lukas Foss, Mariss Jansons, J. Master, S. Comissiona, etc. He has been commissioned by many outstanding organizations in the US and Europe, including the Aspen Festival, the San Diego Opera, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Hartford Symphonies, National Endowment for the Arts, Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, The Millennium of Catalonia, Sociedad Estatal pare el V Centenario, the National Orchestra of Spain, and the Radio TV Orchestra of Madrid. He has composed works for artists like Alicia de Larrocha, Lorin MaazeI, Mariss Jansons, the American Brass Quintet, Andres Segovia, Narciso Yepes, Lucero Tena, Angel Romero and has collaborated with artists and writers like Salvador Dali and Nobel Prize winner Carrillo Jose Cola. A large number of his compositions are recorded on Deutsche Grammophone, Naxos, Albany and New World Records. Some of his recordings include "Steel Symphony" and "Music for Oboe and Orchestra" with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Lorin Maazel, and the cantatas "Torquemada" and "Maria Sabina,. His latest CD on Naxos- three concertos for piano, guitar and flute-were selected by Amazon.com as one of the "10 Best recordings of 2001" for classic Instrumental music. Balada's large catalog of works includes, in addition to chamber and symphonic compositions, cantatas, two chamber operas and three full length ones: "Zapata", "Christopher Columbus" and its sequel "The Death of Columbus". "Christopher Columbus" premiered in Barcelona in 1989 with Jose Carreras and Montserrat Caballe singing the leading roles and attracted international attention. The New York Times calls Balada's contribution "a gift to his native Catatonia" while the Washington Times calls the work "a masterpiece..;.a landmark score in the lyric theater of our time.". In 2002 Balada had two symphonic world premieres:"Concerto for Cello and Orchestra n.2" in Berlin, and "Dionisio:in Memoriam" a cantata for narrator, chorus and orchestra in Madrid. He presently working on several works to be premiered next season, most relevant, "Symphony n. 5 -'American’” commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, "Ebony" for chorus and orchestra to premiere in Madrid and a chamber orchestra work to be premiered at the Torroella International Music Festival.