Andrea's Tango Site

When, a few weeks from now in the heat of the South American summer, the lights go up in the Centro Cultural Kirchner in Buenos Aires, one of the most unique music competitions will begin: the first ever International Contest for New Tango Ensembles. Ten out of an initial fifty-five orchestras from nine different countries will enter the stage of the CCK — the biggest cultural center in Latin America — to compete as finalists in a musical genre which, until not too long ago, has been seen as a thing of the past. It will be the grand finale of a week-long gathering of tango musicians who will have participated in a study program called Tango Para Músicos.

Musicians from all over the world are expected to attend six days packed with learning and playing tango. Tango Para Músicos will offer these aficionados a broad variety of classes where they will have a chance to study with some of the masters of modern tango, such as bandoneon instructor Eva Wolff, tango singing-instructor Noelia Moncada, and Exequiel Mantega who teaches orchestration. Participants can choose from eighty modules of instrument classes and fifty modular classes for arrangement, composition, production, musical training, and more. The classes are open to basically all instruments, including vibraphone, clarinet, saxophone, and, of course, all string instruments. In past years even two ukuleles have participated. Drums, on the other hand, have not been part of the course (yet). The public is invited to attend free nightly concerts, milongas, and practicas.

The ‘icing on the cake’, however, is certainly going to be the above-mentioned and much-anticipated International Contest for New Tango Ensembles.

The response to this first-ever international contest has been far greater than the organizers’ expectations. Fifty-five orchestras from countries in Asia, Australia, the United States, and Europe had initially applied, from which only ten were chosen. The candidates were asked to present their own arrangements with at least one by a modern composer. The submissions had to be sent in by video so that the judges could not only listen to the musical presentation, but also receive an impression of each band’s stage presence. When the finalists compete live on the stage of the CCK, they are going to play in front of a jury consisting of some the most accomplished artists of the contemporary tango world: Ramiro Gallo, Diego Schissi, Julián Peralta, Juan Carlos Cuacci, and Gustavo Margulies.

What will take place at the Centro Cultural Kirchner in the heart of Buenos Aires between February 12th and 19th marks a newly-found widespread appreciation of a musical genre which, until twenty years ago in most parts of the world, was hardly noticeable. For decades tango had played only a marginal role in the multifaceted international world of music. And even before, during the first half of the twentieth century, when tango was hugely popular and danced everywhere in the United States and Europe, only a few tango orchestras existed in countries outside Argentina. Instead, most Argentine tango musicians were classically trained musicians from Europe who would travel and perform with their orchestras in the United States and Europe.

Over the past twenty years, as Argentine tango has seen a revival, especially among younger people, it has attracted more and more musicians from different parts of the world, inspiring them to form their own bands. They are eager to master this musical style and to take it back to their own countries and communities. The best place for them to learn is still right here where it all began: in Buenos Aires.

A new generation of independent artists and musicians in the capital of Argentina has picked up that trend and begun to develop Tango Para Músicos as a specific and condensed program for musicians. The program takes place once a year. It offers a packed schedule during its six-day duration. Musicians are divided into intermediate and advanced levels based on their skills. For the intermediate level, a musician needs to know how to play and read music, and demonstrate a certain mastery of their instrument. To qualify for the advanced level, a candidate needs to be a highly accomplished, classically trained musician who wants to know how to play tango. Candidates have to apply by video, and are then put into the appropriate ensemble.

The teaching method of Tango Para Músicos is based on the Método de tango. This is a collection of course books which could be best explained to people unfamiliar with the subject as the ‘bible for tango musicians’. Método de tango is the first fundamental method for playing tango music. The collection includes six separate issues for flute, violin, contrabass, bandoneon, guitar, and piano. It was first published in 2010 by Ricordi in Munich, but since 2014 it has been published by Tango Sin Fin in Argentina. Método de tango is considered the essential source for tango musicians.

One of the authors is Paulina Fain. She wrote the issue on tango for flute. Based on her experience gained writing the book, she went on to put the method of teaching tango into practice, and created the Tango Para Músicos program with her husband Exequiel Mantega. “Our mission is to teach musicians what was not written on paper,” Paulina explains. “It’s sort of the ‘decodification’ of tango. We want to teach them how to make it happen.”

To make it happen from a practical point of view, the couple founded Tango Sin Fin, a non-profit organization dedicated mainly to promoting and developing Argentine tango music world-wide. ‘Tango Sin Fin’ translates to ‘Endless Tango’. Unlike in the United States, cultural programs in Argentina can receive governmental subsidies, and so, to no surprise, Tango Sin Fin is also supported by the Argentine government and the Ministry of Culture. Tango Para Músicos runs as an independent program within Tango Sin Fin.

Paulina talks at a speed of hundred miles per minute. She is bubbling with information. I have to interrupt her passionate flow of words several times to make sure that I don’t miss anything. Her own relationship with tango began long before she started the music program or even before she wrote the book on tango for flute. It was back in the mid-nineties, when there were only about ten tango musicians in Buenos Aires, she recalls. That’s when she and other musicians of her generation started to become aware of this genre which up until then had been closely connected in their memories with the so-called ‘dark times’ of their country. Until then, they played rock-and-roll and other music imported from the United States. “But when we started to play tango, something resonated in us and it felt deeper than everything else,” she says. This young Argentine generation, after having been disconnected from its own culture by military dictatorship, had discovered its roots.

What Paulina, her husband Exequiel, and everybody around them started only a short while ago resembles an avalanche. Only four years have passed since the first Tango Para Músicos program took place in Buenos Aires, and it has met with world-wide interest and recognition. How big an interest there is among musicians outside Argentina is shown, for example, by the fact that Reed College in Portland has adopted the program. Thanks to Morgan Luker, Associate Professor of Music at Reed College, whose special interest is in contemporary tango music in Buenos Aires, musicians closer to the United States can now take advantage of the same program on the American West Coast. Not only has Luker brought Tango For Musicians to Reed College in Portland every summer for the past five years, but he’s also been able to expand the program significantly. This coming June, for the first time, a program specifically designed for composers and arrangers will be offered: Tango For Composers including none other than award-winning pianist, composer, and arranger Diego Schissi.

Just as in Buenos Aires, the public is invited to attend certain concerts for free. Dancers and others who are not playing an instrument, but who are still interested in participating, can sign up for another newly created course called Auditors Track. It teaches basic knowledge about tango and its history, and offers participants access to rehearsals.

After the successful export of Tango Para Músicos to Portland, Paulina and Exequiel will be traveling to Japan, Australia, the United States, and Europe this year, where they have been invited to bring their program to certain schools. Paulina says that they would very much like to see it established on campuses around the world. But for the next few weeks their focus will be on Buenos Aires — and on that Sunday when the lights go up on some of the best tango ensembles in the world.

Tango Para Músicos takes place from February 12 through 19 in Buenos Aires. More information can be found on https://tangoparamusicos.org/

More on the Tango Sin Fin Awards can be found here: https://tangosinfin.wordpress.com/tangosinfinawards/

Tango for Musicians at Reed College takes place from June 25 – July 2, 2017. For more information go to http://www.reed.edu/tango/