Leo Maslíah

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.