Born in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on December 18, 1921, León was in contact with music at an early age, thanks to his parents, Alicia Ferro Roman and Luis Enrique León Lozada. They cultivated music in their home and stimulated him to begin his studies. He received his first music lessons from his father.
In 1924, his family moved to the United States, first to San Francisco and then to New York. In 1929, he began private piano lessons with maestro Leo Holtz and a Cuban maestro whose last name was Fuentes.
In 1935, the family returned to Colombia. The young musician continued his studies with private piano teachers until 1937, when he entered the National University of Colombia Conservatory to study the piano. His teachers were Lucia Perez and Tatiana Gontschrova.
In 1941, he moved to New York City, where he was accepted at The Juilliard School of Music to continue his studies in piano. His teachers were Russian Josef Levine and German Carl Friedberg, one of Clara Wieck-Schumann's last disciples. He obtained his university degree in piano in 1945.
Later, León won a scholarship to continue his orchestral direction and composition studies at Juilliard under maestros Edgard Schenkmann, Vittorio Giannini, and Bernard Wagenaar. He often traveled to Colombia during his studies, giving piano recitals.
In 1947, León was named director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, replacing maestro Guillermo Espinosa. For this reason, he interrupted his studies at Juilliard and returned to Colombia, where he began an important task as the head of the orchestra. This same year, he met Beatriz Carreño Mutis, the National Conservatory of Music secretary, whom he married in 1949.
While head of the orchestra, León also distinguished himself as a piano professor at the National University of Colombia Conservatory. He held the director position for approximately two years until he decided to return to the United States. There he served as the director of numerous orchestras in opera productions and Musical Theater.
In 1955, León was named Assistant Director of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra. With this orchestra, he traveled to various countries in Europe and the Middle East and appeared in many of the most important theaters in the world. He kept this position until
1958.
From that time on, he began his affiliation with various orchestras and opera and musical theater companies in the United States, such as the Dallas State Fair Orchestra in Texas, where he directed opera and musical theater productions, and the Theater Under the Stars (TUTS) company orchestra of Atlanta, Georgia, which he directed until 1960.
In 1968, he returned to direct the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, this time as the main director, a position he held until 1972 when he returned definitively to Colombia as Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogotá.
León started composing songs in 1951 when he wrote: Aves y ensueños, the first of many vocal works inspired by poems of Colombian poets.
His vocal works began to be heard in the 70s when artists like Colombian soprano Carmiña Gallo started to include his songs in recitals. The first recordings of León’s songs were made in Washington D.C. at Catholic University under the sponsorship of the Organization of American States.
For his long and fruitful career and his invaluable contribution to the country's musical life, he was awarded the Order of Artistic Merit in 1988 as an officer. Among the awards received, we can mention the decoration awarded by the Ministry of Culture in 2001, the "Edmundo Mosquera Troya" order awarded by the Popayán Religious Music Festival in 2003, the Order of Philharmonic Merit awarded by the Philharmonic Orchestra in 1996, the recognition of the musical career granted by the Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005, the Order of Philharmonic Merit granted by the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra on August 15, 2007.
In 2005, the EAFIT University of Medellín dedicated its third week of contemporary music to his work León.
In 2009 the Barcelona Festival of Song, a summer course dedicated to promoting and studying the Ibero-American vocal repertoire, honored his figure by programming conferences, concerts, and classes dedicated to studying his work. In 2013 the Ministry of Culture honored him with a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra in which his Misa Brevis and the Children's Songs were performed.
Jaime León died in Bogotá on May 11, 2015, at his home in Bogotá. In 2021 to celebrate his centennial, numerous events happened around the world. Since 2021 the world has celebrated the International Day of Latin American Art Song on May 11 to pay homage to his contribution to the field.