Leonardo Balada (born September 22, 1933 in Barcelona, Catalonia), Spain, is a spanish catalan composer and naturalized American citizen.

He graduated from Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona and in 1956 emigrated to the United States, where in 1960, he graduated from the Juilliard School in New York. He studied composition with Vincent Persichetti and Aaron Copland, and studied conducting with Igor Markevitch. In 1981, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Since 1970 he has been teaching at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

His works in the early 1960s are somewhat neo-classical in nature, but the composer was dissatisfied and in 1966 saw a change to an avant-garde style, producing such works like Guernica. The composer felt a need for a change again in 1975, and the works from then onwards are characterized by the combination of folk dance rhythms with avant-garde techniques of the previous period. Harmonically, there is a combination of tonality (folk music) with atonality. Works marking this new trend including Homage to Sarasate and Homage to Casals.

In and out of his stylistic phases, Leonardo Balada's music promises rhythmic excitement, often haunting atmospheres and unceasingly innovative orchestrations.

Balada's works have been extensively recorded by Naxos Records.

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