Campus News

Willson Center Global Georgia Initiative talk postponed

Leon
Composer

Update: Tania León, the scheduled guest of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts for Thursday, Jan. 30 in its Global Georgia Initiative, will be unable to give her talk due to ongoing travel delays caused by inclement weather. The Willson Center hopes to reschedule León’s visit to the university at a later date.

The Global Georgia Initiative, a program of the Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, begins Jan. 30 at 4 p.m. with a lecture in the Chapel by composer, conductor and educator Tania León.

The talk, “Border Crossings: Cultural Thresholds in the Syncretic Evolution of Music,” is presented in partnership with the Music Business Program of the Terry College of Business.

“As a composer, Tania León’s work reflects a multitude of personal, cultural and stylistic influences, presenting listeners with compositions that are rich in rhythmic layering, rich orchestration and cross-cultural dialogues,” said Susan Thomas, an associate professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ Hugh Hodgson School of Music. “As a conductor, she has been an important force in promoting new music as well as in bringing new music and art music in general to underserved audiences.”

Thomas, co-director of the Athens Music Project, a Willson Center Faculty Research Cluster, will introduce León at the Chapel.

The Global Georgia Initiative is a series of lectures and conversations organized by the Willson Center.

The remaining guests in the 2014 series are journalist Pete McCommons, editor and publisher of Flagpole, Athens’ alternative weekly newspaper; poet, playwright and scholar Nathalie Handal; author, historian and educator Paul Pressly; and author and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo.