Historias de Tango

The University of Arizona School of Music in collaboration with the School of Dance, the Tucson Tango Club, Tango Guitar Project, and the Latinx Faculty and Staff Association presents Historias de Tango, featuring a live concert with pre-concert lecture and demo dance class. Music by Piazzolla, Frederico, Giraudo, Caldarella and Scarpino with original choreography by Sarah Lisette Chiesa

This project has been made possible by donors to the College of Fine Arts Fund for Excellence

The School of Music building is located in the UArizona Fine Arts Complex (southeast corner of Park Avenue and Speedway Boulevard). Parking is available at the Park Avenue Garage, on the northeast corner of Park Avenue and Speedway Boulevard. Most concerts take place at Crowder and Holsclaw Halls, both located in the School of Music building.

 

Concert Program:

Verano Porteño (Astor Piazzolla)

Chicharrita (Pedro Giraudo)

Con un nudo (Pedro Giraudo)

Milonguero de Hoy (Leopoldo Federico)

Solitude (Astor Piazzolla)

La muerte del Ángel (Astor Piazzolla)

Con Creces (Pedro Giraudo)

Cautivo (Anibal Troilo/Luis Rubistein)

Berretín (Pedro Laurenz/Enrique Cadicamo)

Milonga de mis amores (Pedro Laurenz)

Milonga Infausta (Pedro Giraudo)

La Rabiosa (Pedro Giraudo)

La Yapa (Pedro Giraudo)

Canaro en París (Alejandro Scarpino/Juan Caldarella)

 

Performers:

Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet – Elena Chernova-Davis (violin), Javier Sánchez (bandoneón), Faya Lin (piano), Pedro Giraudo (bass)

Dancers – Sarah Lisette Chiesa (choreographer/performer), Erick Orozco, Sophie Connell, Madeline Nguyen, Cameron Cavendish, Mallory Ansley, Thomas Long

Tango Guitar Project – Maximiliano Larrea, Andres Pantoja, Facundo Martinez

 

Bios:

Latin GRAMMY Award winner bassist and composer Pedro Giraudo is among the most compelling tango artists today. After two decades performing with the most important interpreters of tango, Pedro Giraudo debuted his own Tango Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing in July 2015 and since then has become an active cultural ambassador of this beautiful and passionate music of his native Argentina.

In 2018 his album ‘Vigor Tanguero‘ won a Latin GRAMMY award for ‘Best Tango Album’. In 2014 Ruben Blades’ CD “Tangos” on which he recorded bass won two Grammys Awards (Best Tango Album & Best Latin Pop). Pedro Giraudo has collaborated with Pablo Ziegler, Paquito D’Rivera, and Dizzy Gillespie’s protégé William Cepeda, as well as ‘Tango meets Jazz’ guests: Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Regina Carter, Nestor Torres, Miguel Zenon among many others. Pedro Giraudo has also collaborated as a performer and arranger for one of New York’s most respected institutions: The New York Philharmonic and has played the bass for the magnificent New York City Ballet Orchestra. He has also been the musical director of Tango for All’s ‘Blind’, Mariela Franganillo Company’s “Tango Connection” and “Tango Recuerdo” and performed with U.S.’s most prominent tango ensembles including ‘Forever Tango’, Hector Del Curto’s ‘Eternal Tango’ and Daniel Binelli’s ‘Tango Metropolis’. He has participated in numerous jazz and music festivals throughout the North America, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, and performed in venues such as The Blue Note (Japan & USA), Birdland (Austria), London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Jazz Festival Royale in Thailand, Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Iridium, Jazz Standard, Blue Note, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall (NYC).

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Javier Sánchez has been playing the bandoneón for almost 30 years. He has been a member of Latin Grammy Award nominee Rodolfo Mederos Orquesta Típica; toured the world with tango companies such as Tango Pasión, Tanguera, and Tango Emotion. In 2016, he relocated to New York City and collaborated with Aces of Rhythm directed by Pablo Aslan , Pan American Symphony Orchestra, and the Astoria Tango Orchestra. He won First Prize at the renowned Che Bandoneon International Competition judged by bandoneón legend Victor Lavallén. In 2018 Mr. Sanchez became Music Director of Che Tangazo Orchestra based in Montreal, Canada, making its debut at Tango BA Festival and World Cup.

Described as a “striking interpreter” who gives a “committed and heartfelt performance” by Musical America and The New York Times, pianist Fanya Lin has captivated audiences worldwide with her charismatic and gripping performances. Her orchestral appearances include the ToruÅ„ Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Savannah Philharmonic, Grand Junction Symphony, and Aurora Symphony. Fanya’s performance of Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was depicted as “mesmerizing performance, it appeared as though a tornado had touched down through her [Fanya Lin] body and lifted her, feathers fluttering, from the piano stool as she weighed into the keys” by Hastings Times and Festival Flyer.

A native of Taipei, Taiwan, Fanya is a top prizewinner of Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, Concours International de Piano France-Amériques, New York International Piano Competition, and Seattle International Piano Competition. Fanya earned her Doctoral Degree at the University of Minnesota under the guidance of Distinguished McKnight Professor Lydia Artymiw; her Master’s Degree at The Juilliard School with Professor Hung-Kuan Chen and Jerome Lowenthal; and her Bachelor’s Degree at Weber State University with Dr. Yu-Jane Yang. In Fall 2019, Dr. Fanya Lin joined the faculty at University of Arizona in Tucson as Assistant Professor of Music in Piano.

Prizewinner of the Aleksander Glazunov International Competition (Paris), Dr. Elena Chernova-Davis enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster in her native Uzbekistan and throughout the United States. She is Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Arizona School of Music, and has previously been on faculty at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and the John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair University. Elena has worked with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Esa Pekka-Salonen, Gerard Schwarz, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Jeffrey Tate, and has performed with ensembles including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York City Ballet Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Latin GRAMMY award-winning Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet. She has appeared in venues including Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Madison Square Garden, and Radio City Music Hall. As a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University, Elena was the recipient of the Concertmaster Fellowship and the Irene Alm Memorial Award for excellence in performance and scholarly research. Her major teachers include Shmuel Ashkenazi, Mihail Kopelman, Elmar Oliveira, and Misha Vitenson.

Sarah Lisette Chiesa is an American born interdisciplinary artist living in Tucson Arizona, who has lived in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and Venezuela. She received her education from the North Carolina School of the Arts for high school, received a BFA from Purchase College in 2004, a Post Graduate Certificate in Choreography from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2014, and an MFA from the University Washington in 2020. In 2016, she studied sculpture and body casting at the Canossa Scuola di Scultura in Reggio Emilia.

As a professional dancer, Sarah was a full-time company member with Shen Wei Dance Arts for many years and continues to work with Shen Wei as a guest artist.

Sarah has taught at various institutions such as Fondazione Della Danza Aterballetto RE, Balletto Toscano, Nuovo Balletto Classico RE, C.I.M.D. Milano, Shoonya Center for Somatic Arts India, Bangalore School of Performing Arts, Centro Cultural del la Florida Santiago Chile, Shen Wei Dance Arts Intensive NY, University of California at Santa Barbara, Velocity Center and the University of Washington Seattle, and Alonzo Kings Lines Ballet BFA and Professional Training Programs in San Francisco. Currently Sarah is an Assistant Professor in the School of Dance at the University of Arizona. As well as Assistant Director to Karmina Silec and Paola Prestini for the Opera Old Man and the Sea premiering in Phoenix in November.

Maximiliano Larrea is a nationally certified classical guitarist from Rosario, Argentina. Currently, he lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he continues to build his career as a tango and folklore performer, arranger, composer and educator. In Argentina, he has participated in some of the leading tango and folk music festivals, including the World Tango Festival and Championships, and the Pre-Cosquin Festival where he was recognized as a competition finalist. Most recently, he was flown to Argentina in the Fall of 2022 to participate in the acclaimed World Guitar Festival, directed by legendary folklore guitarist Juan Falú. While living in Buenos Aires, Larrea performed with, and directed, multiple tango groups and recorded on numerous tango albums. Internationally, he has toured with tango bands in Europe, North America, and East Asia. In the United States, Larrea has lead tango and folklore groups, worked with university tango ensembles and tango summer camps, and developed his career as a solo artist. His first album of original compositions for solo guitar, Donde Termina el Río/Where the River Ends, was released in 2020. In 2021 he received a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to publish a book of guitar tango arrangements to be presented throughout Tucson and Phoenix, published in 2023. He has also been awarded with the Master-Apprentice Artist Award for 2023 from Southwest Folklife Alliance to teach tango guitar. When not composing, arranging, or performing, Larrea runs a home studio where he teaches popular guitar styles to local and international students of all ages and skill levels.

Andrés Pantoja was born in Chillán, Chile, in 1981. He started his guitar studies at the age of 13 with Professor Edith Vásquez, his mother. He completed his undergraduate studies in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with Professor Oscar Ohlsen. After graduating with the highest honor award, he continued his studies under the guidance of Luis Orlandini. He is currently pursuing a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) in performance with Professor Thomas Patterson in The Bolton Guitar Studies Program at the University of Arizona in the United States. He has performed in the United States, Switzerland, France, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Uruguay and in the most important festivals in Chile. Moreover, he has been featured in TV programs, radio programs, and as a soloist along with ensembles as prestigious as the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Chile, and the University of Santiago de Chile Classical Orchestra, among others. He has premiered solo works and chamber music, in addition to the Concert for guitar and orchestra”…y truncaron tu canto…” by the Chilean composer Víctor Ortiz.

Facundo Martinez was born in Mendoza, Argentina in 1997. He started learning classical guitar at the tender age of 7 and specialized in it under the guidance of Maestro Esteban Espinoza in Chile. He is a Teaching Assistant to Professor Thomas Patterson at the University of Arizona. During his time at the university, he has had the opportunity to attend classes taught by renowned teachers such as David Russel and Sergio Assad.  He recently has been awarded with “David Russel Bach prize” He has an extensive repertoire and has performed in multiple competitions and concerts throughout South America during his career.

Eduardo Herrera (he/him/his) is an Assosiate Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He is the author of Elite Art Worlds: Philanthropy, Latin Americanism, and Avant-Garde Music (2020) and co-editor of Experimentalisms in Practice: Music Perspectives from Latin America (2018). Herrera is currently working on two other book projects: Sounding Fandom: Chanting, Masculinity, and Violence in Agentine Soccer Stadiums and Soccer Sounds: Transnational Stories of the Beautiful Game.

Herrera is currently serving as one of the Directors-at-Large at the American Musicological Society in the 2022-23 academic year. He has previously served as Interim Council Chair for the Society for Ethnomusicology (2020-21) and as Board Member-at-Large for the Society for American Music (2017-20).

His research interests include: Latin American and Latinx cultural practices; Music and sound in sports and games; Sound studies; Soccer, masculinity, violence; Coloniality/postcoloniality/decoloniality; Ethnography of elites; Experimental music studies; Cultural diplomacy and philanthropy

Jennie Gubner is a socially engaged interdisciplinary scholar, violinist, and visual ethnographer. She holds a PhD from the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology, and is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health. Her research interests include applied approaches to the study of music and dementia and creative aging, intergenerational tango bars as spaces of urban belonging in Buenos Aires, participatory music scenes as vehicles for social activism in South America and Southern Italy, and ethnomusicological filmmaking. She joined the University of Arizona in January 2020 as Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Fred Fox School of Music, and Chair of the Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. Through her research, teaching, and mentorship, she looks forward to buildling creative arts-based pathways and collaborations across diverse fields at the University of Arizona and between the university and local communities.

She has published her research and films in premier research journals, organized multiple international conferences and collaborations around audiovisual ethnomusicology, and presented her research at major music, humanities, and medical conferences. In May 2019 she received the Best Education Paper Award at the American Geriatrics Society Annual Meeting. As a violinist, Gubner plays Argentine tango and folk music, bluegrass & old-time fiddle, and Sicilian popular music.

Kate Rosalik and Levi Anthony are Argentine Tango Professionals whose dedication to the dance spans more than 20 years each. They are co-owners of Tucson Tango School, LLC. Passionately dedicated to helping people discover and deepen their love for tango, Kate Rosalik and Levi Anthony started Tucson Tango School in 2018. Kate and Levi teach private lessons, group classes, workshops, and are available for private parties and performances.