Leon Milo (December 10, 1956 - August 31, 2014) is an American composer, percussionist and sound artist.
He is known for music and sonic environments in which instruments, electronics, natural sounds and synthesis are unified. His music is internationally recognized.
Biography
Early years
Growing up in the Hollywood Hills, Milo had access to the most important artists on the west coast. In his teens, he studied with the renowned drummers Bill Douglass, Charles Flores and Joe Porcaro. At 15 years old, he began studying timpani and orchestral percussion with William Kraft, who introduced him to the classical orchestral repertoire and contemporary music. Milo went on to study with Kraft’s own teacher, Saul Goodman, at the Juilliard School.
New York
In 1975, Milo was accepted into the Juilliard School to study timpani and percussion with Saul Goodman and Elden C. “Buster” Bailey. At the same time and also at Juilliard, he began studying composition and contemporary music analysis with Stanley Wolfe, who encouraged him while writing his first pieces.
Between 1975 and 1981 he worked in numerous orchestras and ensembles at Juilliard and as a freelance percussionist in New York City and outlying areas. He was percussionist and timpanist in the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra during these years.
At Juilliard, he worked with conductors such as Sixten Ehrling, Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan, Pierre Boulez and Myung-Whun Chung.
Milo also performed at places like The Kitchen, presenting early minimal, improvised and aleatoric contemporary music. Attending workshops in the dance studio of Merce Cunningham he was influenced by the ideas of Cunningham and John Cage.
Milo received his Master of Music Degree from Juilliard School in 1980.
Israel
In 1981 he was invited to take the position of principal timpanist and percussionist with the Israel Sinfonietta Orchestra, Beer-Sheva. Between 1981 and 1984, he worked with conductors like Mendi Rodan, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Paul Tortelier, Zubin Mehta, Isaac Stern and Karsten Andersen.
Throughout this period he was a Student of composer Tzvi Avni, who composed the solo percussion piece “5 Variations for Mister K.” for Milo's Tel-Aviv Museum recital in 1983.
Milo played hundreds of concerts with the Israel Sinfonietta Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Tel-Aviv Chamber Orchestra, as well as performing as soloist and in ensembles at the Israel Festival and at the Tel-Aviv Museum recital series.
In 1984 he sent off his music to Luciano Berio. Berio invited him to Florence for a meeting and put him in contact with Leonard Stein in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles
In the summer of 1984, Milo moved back to Los Angeles to work with Leonard Stein. From 1984 to 1989, Milo studied privately with Stein.
Stein was Arnold Schoenberg's teaching assistant in the 1940s, an important interpreter of Schoenberg music and director of the Schoenberg Institute (at the USC). As a Professor, he encouraged generations of composers to develop their own ideas. Among his others students was notably, La Monte Young.
A year later, he was accepted to the composer's workshop at the Aspen Music Festival where he studied with Luciano Berio, Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown and Morton Subotnick.
He began to take part in the LA music scene, first by joining the Independent Composers Association for whom he wrote “Antiphon” and “Hei-Kyo-Ku”. He played regularly with the Santa Barbara Symphony, Ventura Symphony Orchestra and The San Bernardino Symphony. He performed often at the Monday Evening Concerts with the “XTET” ensemble, which he co-founded.
In 1986, after two years of study with Leonard Stein, he was commissioned to write a piece for the LA Philharmonic new music ensemble, by the composer in residence John Harbison.
Milo was accepted as a Composer Fellow at the Sundance Institute Composer's Lab in 1987.
Paris
Milo moved to Paris with a Fulbright Fellowship for composition in 1989. That year, he studied privately with Gilbert Amy and attended master classes at the American School in Fontainebleau with Tristan Murail and Betsy Jolas.
In 1990, he received the Nadia and Lily Boulanger grant for composition during which time he wrote a work for large orchestra (Quintrillium) for the Ventura County Symphony Orchestra. The piece was commissioned by Leonard Stein and Betty Freeman. The premier was conducted by Leonard Stein. Also on the program was the Arnold Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto (Op. 36) with Rose Mary Harbison as soloist.