Leo Maslíah (born 1954) is a Uruguayan musician, humorist and writer.
Born in 1954 in Montevideo, he started writing and composing in 1978, usually incorporating humour in his works.
After a considerable success in the Uruguayan underground movement, he successfully disembarked in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1982. He slowly gained popularity, had concerts in Chile, Peru, Cuba, Brazil, Paraguay and Spain among others.
His music resists classification. It results from an original mix of personal experiments, popular music, classical composition - including electroacoustic materials - and jazz. He often bases his pieces on the minimalistic repetition of short elements. His lyrics include frequent puns. Overall, his production adopts a tone both ironic and critical, always intelligent and witty, sometimes nihilistic. He recorded more than 40 albums, most of them released in Uruguay and Argentina. In 2003 his opera"Maldoror" was performed in the Teatro Colón.
He also wrote over 40 books with novels, short stories and plays. 10 of his plays were taken to theater. The Konex Foundation of Argentina awarded him "Merit for humour in literature" in 1994.
He was born on July 26, 1954, in Montevideo. He studied piano with Bertha Chadicov and Wilser Rossi, harmony with Nydia Pereyra Lisaso, organ with Manuel Salsamendi, and composition with Coriún Aharonián and Graciela Paraskevaídis. He appeared for the first time in public in 1974 as an organ soloist performing a Haendel concerto. As of 1978 he develops an intense activity as author and performer of popular music, having performed in many countries of South America and Europe.
In 1981 his electroacoustic composition "Llanto" was included in the programming of the annual festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music (SIMC) held in Brussels, Belgium. Uruguayan orchestras perform several of his symphonic works. His chamber works are part of the repertoire of some national and foreign performers. In 1994 he was distinguished by the Konex Foundation of Argentina among the hundred best figures of Argentine letters of the decade 1984–1994.
In June 2003, his opera Maldoror, based on the book Los cantos de Maldoror by the Count of Lautréamont (the famous French poet Isidore Ducasse born in Uruguay), was premiered (and several performances were performed) at the Teatro Colón in the city of Buenos Aires. In 1998 he received the Morosoli Award in recognition of his career in popular music, and in 2012 the Uruguayan Ministry of Education and Culture's annual music award in the jazz/fusion/Latin category for his composition "Algo Ritmo" .
As a composer and performer of music of the so-called "cult" genre, he participated in concerts and recordings of contemporary music from Uruguay, Argentina and other countries. He also edited, as a soloist, more than 40 record works. Trees won in 2008, in Argentina, the Gardel Award for the best instrumental album and Leo Maslíah plays Bach in 2020 the award for the best classical music album. Leo Maslíah also published nearly 40 books, including novels, collections of short stories and plays. In 2019 he was the winner of the National Literature Awards with his work Literature with fences.
Several of his plays were premiered in Montevideo and/or Buenos Aires with staging by the author or other directors. His works Telecomedia and El mouse were awarded the prize of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay, in the "comedy" category, in 2000 and 2013.
Discography
In Uruguay
Cansiones barias (Ayuí / Tacuabé. 1980)
Falta un vidrio (Ayuí / Tacuabé a/e31k. 1981)
Recital especial (Ayuí / Tacuabé a/e40k. 1983)
Canciones & negocios de otra índole (La Batuta. 1984)
Extraños en tu casa (La Batuta. 1985)
Leo Maslíah en español (Ayuí / Tacuabé a/e54k. 1986)
Leo Maslíah y Jorge Cumbo en dúplex (Orfeo. 1987)
Leo Maslíah en vivo (Ayuí / Tacuabé a/e65k. 1987)
Buscado vivo (Variety)
I lique roc (Orfeo. 1988)
Leo Maslíah en el Teatro Circular con Liese Lange (Orfeo. 1989)
El tortelín y el canelón (withHéctor De Benedictis) (Infantil) (Orfeo. 1989)
Persianas (Orfeo. 1990)
Sin palabras 1 (Ayuí / Tacuabé a/e92k. 1991)
13 años (Orfeo. 1991)
Tortugas (Orfeo. 1993)
Sin novedad (Recopilación) (Orfeo. 1993)
No juegues con fuego porque lo podes apagar (Audio version of the play of the same name. Recorded in Montevideo in 1993. Perro Andaluz. 1993)
