A strong opponent of oppression in all its forms, Leonardo Balada met Martin Luther King in 1967. His Sinfonía en Negro is a powerful response to King’s subsequent murder as well as a description of the black people’s journey in the Americas from slavery to freedom. Both the Sinfonía and the virtuoso Double Concerto use Balada’s pioneering blend of ethnic music with avant-garde techniques, while Columbus: Images for Orchestra is a free adaptation of four contrasting scenes from his acclaimed opera Christopher Columbus (8.660237-38). In 2007 Leonardo Balada won an Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters which helped to make this recording possible.