in the meantime let's stay connected

Seminario Astor Piazzolla - 3 Fridays at 8-9:30PM (EST) April 9, 16, 23rd

Wine-down at the end of your week with us :)

​

This is a Music & History Seminar.

Emiliano (Pianist) & Leandro (Historian) got together and prepared this new lecture series for us. Here is their description and their background:

​

This series of 3 lectures explores Piazzolla’s uniqueness from a musical and historical perspective.  The questions that trigger this seminar are: why Piazzolla’s music is not played much in milongas nowadays? Can we dance Piazzolla’s music? Is Piazzolla's music considered Tango? We seek to answer these questions by analyzing Piazzolla’s music, his types of accompaniments, his different groups and orchestrations, and the use of his bandoneon. We also explore a particular moment in the history of Argentina and the global music industry from the 1950s to the 1970s to analyze the making of a unique musician. 

​

We analyze Piazzolla’s unique music in dialogue with other genres, including Klezmer, Jazz, and classic composers like Bartók, Stravinsky and Bach, in addition to the Tango music scene that Piazzolla listened to and challenged. From a music perspective, the classes explore Piazzolla’s mechanisms of composition, his types of accompaniments, his different groups and orchestrations and the use of his bandoneon. We also look at the challenges Piazzolla had as he was trying to insert himself in the global circuits of the music industry (especially in the U.S.) and the local (Argentinian) social and cultural context. We connect his music with the transformations of Argentine society at the end of Perón’s government and the attempt to shape Argentinian identity as cosmopolitan, a time when tango will begin to lose its predominant place. Rather than taking Piazzolla as a legend, we want to explore the formation of a musician that confronted many challenges in his country and abroad. 

Combining our expertise as professional musicians and historians from Argentina, the lectures combine a dynamic format that includes live music examples, videos, pictures, music scores and original historical research. Participants will learn the uniqueness of tango in an innovative approach. No previous knowledge is required.

​

Lecture 1: Piazzolla’s Music (Emiliano Messiez)

Lecture 2: Piazzolla, between Argentinian Cosmopolitanism and the Global Music Industry (Leandro Benmergui)

Lecture 3: Connection. In this class, both professors will join together and mix their first two classes reviewing some of the topics and bringing new elements and interacting with the audience.

​

​

Emiliano Messiez

Pianist and composer (University of the Arts and The School of Popular Music in Buenos Aires, Argentina). Assistant Professor of Counterpoint, Harmony and Music History at the University of the Arts in Buenos Aires. Emiliano has performed around the world in the most prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center and The Metropolitan Museum in New York, among many others. He is the pianist of the show “Forever Tango” and his own orchestra “Típica Messiez”. As teacher he has been giving lectures and work shops for many years. He has been awarded by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO for his album “Silencio” recorded with the José Luis Infantino Group.

Leandro Benmergui

Historian (University of Buenos Aires; PhD University of Maryland, College Park). Assistant Professor of History at Purchase College, State University of New York. Chair of the Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. Director of Casa Purchase, an Outreach Center. His work combines a history of Latin American cities and societies in the twentieth century from a transnational and socio-cultural perspective. He has published extensively in different academic journals and is currently working on his manuscript, a history of housing, modernization, and developmentalism in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro (1950s-1970s) in the cold-war context.

​

*** Each session is RECORDED so if you have any schedule conflicts or time zone differences you would be able to catch up through the recordings.

We of course always prefer when you can join the live sessions so we get to see you and have you participate but it is not mandatory :)b

​

REGISTRATION: $50 for all 3 classes / person

aaaand yes you have to register for all three :)
Once you register we will send you the zoom link
You can Venmo adamandciko

or Zelle ciko_ciko@hotmail.com

OR use the link below for Paypal

*If you use the link below there will be a small fee through paypal.