Born in Barcelona, Spain, on 22 September 1933, Leonardo Balada 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 with 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, María 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 Sinfonía en Negro-Homage to Martin Luther King (1968) and Homage to Casals and Sarasate 1975). Balada has received several international awards.
Balada’s works are being performed by the world’s leading 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., Milwaukee, Oregon, Prague, Düsseldorf, Barcelona, Sao Paulo, Mexico; the radio orchestras of Leipzig, Berlin, Berne, Madrid, Hanover, Moscow, Helsinki, Luxembourg, BBC, Jerusalem; the National Orchestras of Spain, Lyon, Toulouse, Marseille, Ireland and Colombia among others, conducted by Maazel, Rostropovitch, Fruhbeck de Burgos, López-Cobos, Lukas Foss, Jansons, Mester, Comissiona, Neville Marriner and other leading names.
He has been commissioned by many outstanding organizations in the USA and Europe, including the Aspen Festival, the San Diego Opera, Teatro Real of Madrid, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Hartford Symphonies, National Endowment for the Arts, Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Millennium of Catalonia, Sociedad Estatal para el V Centenario, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Radio TV Orchestra of Madrid, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra etc. He has composed works for artists like Alicia de Larrocha, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, the American Brass Quintet, The Miro String Quartet, Andres Segovia, Narciso Yepes, Lucero Tena, Angel Romero, Eliot Fisk and has collaborated with artists and writers like Salvador Dali and Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Cela.
One of his CDs on Naxos—three concertos for piano, guitar and flute [8.555039]—was selected by Amazon.com as one of the “10 Best recordings of 2001” for classic instrumental music and also won the prestigious Rosette award granted by Penguin Guide to Compact Discs.
Balada’s large catalogue 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 was premiered in Barcelona in 1989 with José 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 Catalonia” while the Washington Times calls the work “a masterpiece…a landmark score in the lyric theater of our time.”.
During the 2005-06 season he had the following world premieres: Symphony No. 6 by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Caprichos No.3 by violinist Andrés Cárdenes and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Caprichos No. 1 by the Miro String Quartet and guitarist Eliot Fisk and Voices No. 2 by the Coral de Camara de Pamplona. Recently he has finished an opera commissioned by the Teatro Real of Madrid called Faust-bal, a 21th C. interpretation of the classical Faust, with libretto by surrealist Fernando Arrabal. This opera will premiere in February 2009. World premiere performances during the 2007-08 season are works by the Radio Berlin Symphony Orchestra (a concerto for three cellos and orchestra), the Hungarian Chamber Symphony Orchestra ( a work for string orchestra) a work for Jeff Turner (contrabass and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra.) and two chamber operas at Teatro de la Zarzuela-Madrid- and Gran Teatre del Liceu-Barcelona.
Principal publishers: G.Schirmer and Beteca Music.
Balada is represented by Music Associates of America
224 King St., Englewood, N.J. 07631, USA
Tel: 1-(201)569-2898 Email: MAASTURM@sprynet.com
For more information please visit his website: www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/balada/index.htm
