Esther Alejandro de León (born March 10, 1947) is a

Puerto Rica Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Oriental Mi ...

n composer. Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Alejandro de León returned to

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

with her family while still a girl. She studied languages at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

; with Luis Antonio Ramírez she took lessons in composition and music pedagogy at the

Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music () is a public conservatory in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto RicoSOBRE EL CONSERVATORIO DE MÚSICA DE PUERTO RICO: Información General del Conservatorio.Retrieved: February 14, 200 ...

. In 1972 she worked with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

in Fontainebleau; she also took composition and conducting lessons at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. In 1980 she composed a work for children for narrator and orchestra, ''El zapatero prodigioso'' after the

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

tale "

The Shoemaker and the Elves "The Elves and The Shoemaker" (German: ''Die Wichtelmänner'') is a set of fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 39) about a poor Shoemaking, shoemaker who receives much-needed help from three young helpful brownie (folklore), elves. T ...

"; commissioned by the Conservatory, it was later taken up by the

Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) (''Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico'' in Spanish language, Spanish) a musical ensemble sponsored by the Government of Puerto Rico. It has 80 regular musicians from around the world performing a 52-we ...

, becoming the first work by a Puerto Rican woman in their repertoire. Unusually for Alejandro, the piece is tonal; much of her work tends instead towards atonality. She has composed for a variety of instrumental combinations, including a good deal of orchestral music; she has also produced

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, songs, piano works, and pieces for tape and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, and has been active as well as a choral arranger.

References

1947 births Living people Puerto Rican women composers Puerto Rican classical composers Women classical composers Composers from New York City 20th-century classical composers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century American women musicians University of Puerto Rico alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers {{PuertoRico-bio-stub