Leo Blanco
Venezuelan-born pianist and composer Leo Blanco has performed around the globe. His compositions pulse with global rhythmic influences; they reflect his South America roots interwoven with European classical traditions. Blanco has frequently presented his fascinating research on African American musical history called “The Sugar Road.” Beside coaching jazz and World music ensembles at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he teaches piano and myriad specialities ranging from South American folkloric music, to advanced rhythmic concepts for keyboardists.
La Resistencia commissioned by Marimolin (Zeltsman and Sharan Leventhal, violin; 2017) is Leo's tribute to young Venezuelans’ fight for democracy. Performances of that work as well as Poconos (Blanco with the Youth Orchestra of Venezuela; 2014) and his string quartet, The South of Strings (Jasper Quartet; 2012), can be heard on YouTube. Other commissions came from the Ministry of Culture of Venezuela (a work performed by the Venezuelan and Colombian Symphonic Orchestras), and the National Jazz Orchestra of Scotland, UK (a piece celebrating music from the Amazonian countries: Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru). He was a composer/collaborator with Either Orchestra on a project mixing jazz, Latin American and Ethiopian music. Blanco also composed the soundtrack for the documentary film “The Silence of the Flies."
"The thrill of beginning a new piece for specific performers brings ideas, colors and textures that dance in my mind. Gradually the concept becomes more specific and subtly nuanced, and I begin to understand the pace of how it breathes. Once in the hands of the performers, it crystallizes."
“Besides the dance between composer and performers, the dance of this commission will also be between Nancy and Paul; between acoustics and electronics, wood and synthetic; between tradition and future through present; between the noble and elegant sound of the marimba and the endless possibilities of the malletSTATION."
Website | Facebook | Instagram
La Resistencia commissioned by Marimolin (Zeltsman and Sharan Leventhal, violin; 2017) is Leo's tribute to young Venezuelans’ fight for democracy. Performances of that work as well as Poconos (Blanco with the Youth Orchestra of Venezuela; 2014) and his string quartet, The South of Strings (Jasper Quartet; 2012), can be heard on YouTube. Other commissions came from the Ministry of Culture of Venezuela (a work performed by the Venezuelan and Colombian Symphonic Orchestras), and the National Jazz Orchestra of Scotland, UK (a piece celebrating music from the Amazonian countries: Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru). He was a composer/collaborator with Either Orchestra on a project mixing jazz, Latin American and Ethiopian music. Blanco also composed the soundtrack for the documentary film “The Silence of the Flies."
"The thrill of beginning a new piece for specific performers brings ideas, colors and textures that dance in my mind. Gradually the concept becomes more specific and subtly nuanced, and I begin to understand the pace of how it breathes. Once in the hands of the performers, it crystallizes."
“Besides the dance between composer and performers, the dance of this commission will also be between Nancy and Paul; between acoustics and electronics, wood and synthetic; between tradition and future through present; between the noble and elegant sound of the marimba and the endless possibilities of the malletSTATION."
Website | Facebook | Instagram