Mario Diaz de Leon

Mario Diaz de Leon (DMA, Composition 2013) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work encompasses modern classical music, experimental electronic music, extreme metal, and creative improvised music.

His classical works are noted for their bold combination of acoustic instruments and electronics, and are documented on four full length recordings. Working extensively with NYC based collaborators including ICE, Talea, TAK Ensemble, and Mivos Quartet, his music has been celebrated over the last decade for its “hallucinatory intensity” (New York Times), “snarling exuberance” (Pitchfork), “helter-skelter, electronically enhanced cadenzas” (New Yorker Magazine), and coupling of “crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (Wire Magazine). 

Recent live performances include events at Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Donaufestival (Austria), CTM Festival (Berlin), Chicago Symphony Center, Hakuju Hall (Tokyo), Venice Biennale, Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Sacrum Profanum (Poland), Musica Nova Helsinki (Finland), National Gallery of Art (DC), Ojai (California), Roulette (Brooklyn), The Kitchen (NYC), and commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, ICE, Talea, NYSCA, and Chamber Music America.

At Columbia, Dr. Diaz de Leon served as Core Lecturer in Music Humanities from 2015-2018, while also teaching Recorded Sound at the Computer Music Center.  In 2019, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Music and Technology at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.

mariodiazdeleon.com

 

 

 

 

Columbia Degrees: 
DMA, Composition
2013