That's Not Tango Souvenir Program

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ASTOR PIAZZOLLA, A LIFE IN MUSIC

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ASTOR PIAZZOLLA, A LIFE IN MUSIC FEATURING In Rotation

Brandt Fredriksen, piano J.P. Jofre, bandoneon Julien Labro, bandoneon Nick Danielson, violin Eric Silberger, violin Lesley Karsten, actor Conceived by Lesley Karsten Written by Lesley Karsten and Stephen Wadsworth Music by Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla Music Director Brandt Fredriksen Story/Music Consultants Fernando Gonzalez Kip Hanrahan Lighting Design: Daniel Barbee Costume Design: Mariah Hale Design Consultant: Charlie Corcoran Rehearsal Pianist: Anna Vinnitsky

Publicity: Diane Blackman, BR Public Relations Social Media: Finn Marino Graphic Design: Bill Weber Studios General Manager: Bess Eckstein

THE SETTING New York City, Argentina, and the recesses of Astor Piazzolla’s mind. 1950s - present.

MUSICAL NUMBERS Composed by Astor Piazzolla Lo Que Vendrá** Milonga del Ángel*** Fuga y Misterio** Zita** La Muerte Del Ángel* Tres Minutos con la Realidad**

Soledad* Adiós Nonino** Oblivion*** La Resurreccián del Angel** Michelangelo ‘70*

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA facebook.com/ThatsNotTango

With assistance from Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Duke Ellington, Béla Bartók and 101 Strings * adapted for trio by Pablo Ziegler ** adapted for trio by Emilio Solla *** adapted for trio by Rodolfo M. Zanetti

@ThatsNotTango

instagram.com/ThatsNotTango

A REMARKABLE DRAMATIC AND musical biography, That’s Not Tango is the story of what is created when the love of a man’s life is his art and not his people.

The show chronicles the life of Astor Piazzolla, an imaginative and restless spirit who betrayed practically everyone who loved him on his way to becoming one of the top composers in the world.

In the end, he asks himself the age-old question: Was the sacrice worth the art?

Brandt Fredriksen and Lesley Karsten

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stor Piazzolla –the man who revolutionized 20th century music with his Nuevo Tango – was as complex and unforgettable as his melodies.

Piazzolla’s personal story is the stuff of novels: a mix of brutality, innocence, defiance, triumph and loss. His childhood did not destine him to become an artist. He hung out with hoodlums and was kicked out of school for fighting. He knew firsthand the violence and cruelty of life growing up on the mean streets of New York’s Lower East Side in the 1920's and 30s.

But surprising musical encounters sparked a fever in Continued on next page

J.P. Jofre and Nick Danielson

him. Bach played on a piano filtering from another apartment in his tenement. Klezmer emanating from the synagogue next door. Jazz pouring out of the clubs in Harlem. And, from the scratchy records his father played... tango. He inhaled it all.

In the end, this wild child grew up to be the most interpreted composer in the world. En route, he encountered an array of musical greats, each of whom pushed him to the next level, culminating with the legendary Nadia Boulanger who urged him on to his true calling: the radical reinvention of tango.

Today, his music is performed across the globe by the finest classical, jazz and tango performers in the world. But who was Astor Piazzolla?

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rt may offer the promise of immortality, but what of our mortal obligations? In That’s Not Tango, we meet Piazzolla after his death in a place resembling purgatory.

Alone, unable to play his beloved bandoneon or write his music, he is forced to wrestle with his memories.

He knew he was destined to make music even if it meant sacrificing the hearts of the people who loved him. Was it enough to give to the world what he could – his music? Or is there always a price to pay?

Irreverent, funny, searingly honest, Piazzolla's dramatic story is illuminated by his extraordinary music and brought to life in That’s Not Tango – Astor Piazzolla, A Life in Music.

APPEARANCES Brandt Fredriksen J.P. Jofre Nick Danielson

SUBCULTURE NEW YORK CITY

Lesley Karsten

“Sophisticated concert music bursting with erotic energy.

Musical performances by a stellar lineup.”

AT THE PUBLIC

FT. MYERS

“No other composer did more to pluck tango out of... seedy seething bars... and translate it into sophisticated concert music.”

JOE’S PUB NEW YORK CITY

Rehearsals

Who is Piazzolla?

“Onstage he’s a god. Offstage he’s a son of a bitch.”

– Aldo Pegani Piazzolla’s European manager

“Piazzolla was like... some exotic and dangerous... drug that brought with it the double edged sword of ecstacy and the bitterest of remorse.”

– John Adams, composer

“I love my father, but I remember the man.”

– Diana Piazzolla, daughter

“Astor Piazzolla dared to defy a traditional establishment greater than the State, greater than the Gaucho, greater than Soccer.

He dared to challenge the Tango.”

– LA MARCHA

Piazzolla (far right) with his father, Vicente Piazzolla and Asunta Manetti

El Día Que Me Quieras; Piazzolla far left,Carlos Gardel, third from left

Piazzolla’s childhood home at 333 E. 9th Street on New York’s Lower East Side With Nadia Boulanger in 1955

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t this moment, somewhere in the world, the music of Astor Piazzolla is being played.

The emergence of New Tango master Astor Piazzolla is a Horatio Alger story for our time.

Here’s a small, would-be hoodlum, the lame son of immigrants living on New York City’s Lower East Side, who grows up to become one of the foremost composers of the 20th century. And in that becoming, he contains multitudes.

He’s a porteño, as inhabitants of Buenos

Aires are called, but a porteño born in Mar del Plata, a seaside town 250 miles south. He’s a New Yorker, but not quite an American. He’s an Argentine who, when he returns home, he’s 16, doesn’t speak Spanish.

He is a composer who takes lessons with Alberto Ginastera and Nadia Boulanger but is educated by the streets of the East Village and Buenos Aires.

He knows his De Caro and Troilo and Vardaro, he studies his Bach and his Bartok, he holds on to the rhythms of Jewish weddings and the swing

Octeto Buenos Aires 1955-58

of Cab Calloway, and of all that and more, Piazzolla creates a music so personal that it touches a global audience.

And thus, the kid who once hated the scratchy tango records his father played every night, to feed his nostalgia for what it was, grows up to be modern tango’s most important composer and give the music a future.

His music speaks of roots and displacement, hope and loss. It’s the music of a street fighter, generous but rough, always on guard, always

as close to love as it is to anger and always, always, on the move. It’s a music in which tenderness has an unsentimental edge.

It’s a music of beauty, seductive mysteries and hard truths, and as it speaks of struggle but also possibility, we hear our humanity.

Tóquese un tango, maestro. Play a tango, maestro. No, not one of the old ones, one of yours.

– Fernando Gonzalez Translator/Annotator of Astor Piazzolla, A Memoir (Amadeus Press, 2001)

Chronology A

stor Piazzolla wrote over 1200 compositions and won three awards during his lifetime. Ÿ March 11, 1921. Born in Mar Ÿ

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del Plata, Argentina.

1925. Family moves to NYC. They lived in New York until 1936. (Brief return to Mar del Plata in 1930.)

1929. Gets first bandoneón at age 8.

1934. Meets Carlos Gardel in New York City.

1937. Family returns to Argentina in 1937.

1939. Joins the orchestra of Aníbal Troilo. Experiences the tango world and hates it.

1941. Studies with composer, Alberto Ginastera.

1942. Marries Dedé Wolff.

The couple has two children: Diana (born 1943) and Daniel (born 1944).

1946. Organizes his own Orquesta Tipica.

1949. Disbands the orchestra; stops playing bandoneón. Studies orchestra direction with Herman Scherchen. Starts to compose ‘symphonic trash.’

1954. Wins the Fabian Sevitzky Price with his composition, Buenos Aires (Opus 15).

1954. Studies with Nadia Boulanger.

1955. Returns to Buenos Aires. Forms Octeto Buenos Aires, revolutionizing Tango.

1958. Disbands the octet.

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Departs for New York City.

Piazzolla leaves first, family follows later.

1959. Piazzolla’s father “Nonino” dies. Writes the legendary Adios Nonino.

Returns to Buenos Aires.

1960. Forms first Quintet. which lasts until 1970. It is, arguably, his most creative period.

1965. El Tango/El Hombre de la Esquina Rosada – collaboration with Borges.

1968. Collaborates with the poet Horacio Ferrer.

1969. Piazzolla and Ferrer create their biggest hit Balada Para Un Loco.

1971-73. Forms Conjunto 9 that conflates his tango and classical ambitions.

1973. Heart attack. Moves to Italy to record. Forms Octeto Electronico.

1976. Marries Laura Escalada.

1977. Second Octeto Electronico. Performs live at Olympia, Paris. Piazzolla comes to the edge of jazz rock fusion and turns back.

1978. Second Quintet. Begins his best 10 years regarding popularity, money, and personal happiness.

1986. Records Tango Zero Hour.

1987. Records The Rough Dancer. Finally famous in the U.S., his “hometown.”

He is no longer the kid from the Lower East Side or the struggling musician from 1959.

1988. Quadruple bypass.

Ÿ 1989. Records La Camorra,

his last studio recording and his testament to Tango history. Ÿ 1989. Forms Sextet.

Performs as solo artist with orchestras. Ÿ 1990. Stroke while living in Paris. Is flown back to his beloved Buenos Aires. Ÿ 1992. Dies July 4 in Buenos Aires.

With his quintet in 1963

First wife Dedé Wolf

Hector Console, Astor Piazzolla, Horacio Malvicino, Fernando Suarez Paz, Pablo Ziegler, 1987

Amelita Baltar

Astor Piazzolla, 1992

J.P. Jofre and Nick Danielson

MUSIC

A Musical Biography About Astor Piazzolla

By CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM JUNE 15, 2016

The bandoneon player JP Jofre. Credit Mihyun Kang

“That’s Not Tango” may seem like an odd title for a musical biography about Astor Piazzolla. After all, no other composer did more to pluck tango out of the seedy, seething bars it was associated with and translate it into sophisticated concert music bursting with erotic energy. But this show, which opens at SubCulture on Wednesday, June 22, [2016] seems willing to question everything.

Written by Lesley Karsten and Stephen Wadsworth, it assigns the part of Piazzolla to a woman — Ms. Karsten — in a twist that plays on the quicksilver exchanges between male and

female partners in tango. In between narrated stations in Piazzolla’s biography, from his birth to Italian parents in Argentina to his childhood in New York and back again, are musical performances by a stellar lineup. Among them, the bandoneon player JP Jofre, the pianist Brandt Fredriksen and the violinist and fiddler Nick Danielson. (Through June 25, [2016] subculturenewyork.com) A version of this article appears in print on June 19, 2016, on Page AR4 of the New York edition with the headline: Classical; One Man’s Life as a Tango.

That’s Not Tango ~ The life and music of Astor Piazzolla

by Bill Garry July 3, 2018

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hat's Not Tango, playing in New York and preparing for a national tour, is not simple to describe. It is billed as a "theatre piece with music," but those few words do not do it justice. It is a live concert, a biography, and an intimate, emotional theatrical experience all rolled into one. The show is a visit with the ghost of Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine-American composer and bandoneón player, who reinvented the music of Tango and took it from the bordellos of Buenos Aires to the great concert halls of the world.

You don't have to know who Piazzolla was, or to even have listened to his music, to be moved and engaged by this show. You might want to refresh your memory on some of his influences, though. Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Cab Calloway, and Bartók (who also turned ethnic music into symphonic gold) are referenced. If you've heard Piazzolla's music before -- you haven't heard it like this.

On stage, an actor playing Piazzolla stands reminiscing about his life -- messy contradictions and all.

Sometimes it seems that he is arguing with St. Peter at the gates of Heaven.

Sometimes he is alone in deliberation

with himself. Behind him is a band -a pianist, a violinist, and a bandoneónista -- who play a dozen compositions, some in full, some in part, that work with the maestro's own monologues to pack an emotional punch.

Doing the punching are three world-class musicians who are part of this project for their love of the man.

And you feel it.

Brandt Fredriksen, the pianist, puts enormous talent on display here. Mr. Fredriksen plays Piazzolla, as well as snippets of Bach, Stravinsky, Ellington and Bartok, with rhythmic energy and masterful technique.

JP Jofre is probably the best living bandoneón player in the world. Not only does he play Piazzolla's instrument with impeccable skill, but he imbues his performance with Piazzolla's own laughter, tears, anger, and grief.

Nick Danielson, the violinista, brings passion and life to every note.

He pulls the story out of the sheet music (and no wonder -- as the assistant concertmaster for the New York City Ballet, he must do that everyday.)

None of these men, and the substitutes who occasionally fill in, are the kinds of musicians you find playing

in small clubs. They are virtuoso musicians and are almost never to be found in such an intimate encounter.

Seeing them live, in service to a master composer, is extraordinary.

Have I mentioned that Piazzolla himself is played by a woman?

Lesley Karsten, the show's creator and co-writer, brings forth the man's wiles and toughness. It is disconcerting at first. But as the show progresses, the choice to have a woman play the part becomes apparent. Piazzolla was painfully torn between the women I n his life -- his mother, three "wives" and daughter -- and his music. Ms. Karsten's performance brings forth the vulnerability that is so visible in his music. A woman in the part also offers the possibility of redemption to the man and the women who survived him.

The script, by Ms. Karsten (a documentary filmmaker) and Stephen Wadsworth (a writer/director in both the theatre and opera worlds), is wellstructured and tightly woven. We enter Piazzolla's heart through his ears; the music of New York, Paris, Harlem, and Buenos Aires sweep us away. In the end, the threads of the man's life come together in a powerful marriage of text and music.

This Truly is Tango The experimental theater piece “That’s Not Tango,” a combination of monologue and live music, returned to the stage this July.

True to his music and his life, the show begins with an aggressive intensity, a strong Astor piece played by the trio. The trio [comprising bandoneon, violin and piano] is on stage all through the show, for almost two hours, without a break.

Spoken in English, the creator and actress Lesley Karsten personifies Piazzolla, speaking after his death. Lesley has translated Argentine slang very effectively. I went to the show with some doubts, but soon I forgot that Lesley was not Astor. To write the piece she sought the advce of Fernando Gonzalez, an Argentine writer and translator of

Maestro Piazzolla’s July 2018 memoirs, and Kip Hanrahan, the producer of one of the tanguero’s best recordings.

In the play, Piazzolla tells his story, beginning with his childhood in New York, living blocks away from SubCulture, the very place where the production was being performed. Young Astor talks about growing up in the neighborhood, which at that time was both Italian and Jewish, and where he heard the music that influ-enced his compositions. After every chapter and while Lesley played Mr. Piazzolla, we heard some of his pieces or music that influenced his work. Throughout the work, Lesley picked the perfect moments to feature the music for maximum

impact.

San Juan (Argentina) native J.P. Jofre plays bandoneón in Piazzolla’s manner, standing up and with instrument over his knee.

Jofre understands the drama. His movements and gestures worked perfectly with the content. The three musicians … performed the music with a passion and perfection that would have made Maestro Astor Piazzolla proud.

“That’s Not Tango” achieves something very difficult: capturing the soul of an artist in 90 minutes.

Nico Lizarraga, July 2018 Translated by Fernando Gonzalez

Trials, Tribulations and Gorgeous Tunes Harry Rolnick July 18, 2018 “I still can't believe that some pseudocritics continue to accuse me of having murdered tango. They have it backward.

They should look at me as the savior of tango. I performed plastic surgery on it.”

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) The four performers in this monodrama dedicated to Astor Piazzolla were so extraordinary that I hate to throw a monkey wrench in the proceedings. That comes later.

For this was one audacious production.

Astor Piazzolla was certainly a magnetic personality on which to base an hour-long one-actor show. An innate artist whose roots lay in Italy (his ancestry), New York (growing up) Argentina (his start as a radical tango-composer), Paris (hobnobbing with the elite of the musical world, studies with Nadia Boulanger), and a world-wide reputation, Piazzolla could never fit into a single category. He longed to be accepted in the “serious” world, but–like a Hollywood actor longing to do Shakespeare on Broadway–his financial success wouldn’t allow it. He was a “tango” composer, but the hermetic Argentine tango-world loathed him for breaking tradition. Piazzolla composed over 3,500 pieces, and some of them reek of his genius, but the majority are more-selfindulgent that artistic.

So how does That’s Not Tango face these problems? The promotions say it is “gender-bending” to have Lesley Karsten play Piazzolla. But such gernder-bending goes back to Mozart, Monteverdi and Richard Strauss, and is no more eccentric than “race-bending” Sir Lawrence Olivier playing Othello.

On the other hand, Ms. Karsten is a

miracle of nature. Coming on stage, scowling at the audience, her voice a smokey Edith Piaf baritone, she relates the endless tribulations and triumphs of Piazzolla.

In the script here (I have no idea how much is Piazzolla, how much is the writing team of Karsten and Wadsworth), the composer is nasty (he calls himself “a sonofabitch offstage”), petulant, and, in the long run, a Hamlet character of indecision.

Does he love the musical diversity of New York? Of course. But he remembers fighting the Jews as a child. Is he a successful tango performer/composer in his youth? Ms. Karsten hates it. Does he have the chance to study with Ginastera?

“Ginastera was a ‘serious’ composer,” says Karsten-Piazzolla with a sneer. Nadia Boulanger, says a snide Piazzolla, was “the greatest teacher since Socrates.”

On the good side, Piazzolla had studied and love his Bach as a child. But now he discovers Ravel! Stravinsky! Bartók!

Bartók pierces the Piazzolla heart, and violinist Eric Silberger plays a few bars from the Second Violin Concerto. Why Bartók? A most fascinating question of inspiration, never plumbed. Obviously the Hungarian composer’s “translation” of folk music would be Piazzolla’s ideal.

For the duration of the show–which goes by like wildfire–Ms. Karsten announces and denounces Piazzolla’s threats from the Tango Establishment, feuds with his children, and an almost unwanted fame toward the end of his life (as well as a Hamlet-like love for his father). And moments are creatively brilliant. As she piles up her relationships and music together in a verbal fugue, the musical trio strikes up Piazzolla’s own Fuga y misterio. (Those hours with Boulanger did pay off!).

I can’t believe that Piazzolla really had these terrors and guilts. He was adored not only by Stravinsky but by Arthur Rubinstein (to think that he discovered both Villa Lobos and Piazzolla), Emanuel Ax, Chick Corea and Rostropovich, everybody who was anybody. His performances on YouTube are fascinating,

his mastery of the bandoneon and other instruments has the honesty of the artist, not the ersatz-smile of a Xavier Cugat.

So why so grouchy? Was this a reality, or was it an artifice for a good show?

Whether true or not, Ms. Karsten makes his tribulations seem real.

The miracle is the incredible musicianship of the three artists here. In fact, the genius of the three players was as intensive, virtuosic and original as any chamber group in New York. For this, credit must first go to pianist/music director Brandt Fredriksen, though, the music was arranged by Pablo Ziegler and Emilio Solla, whose names were sadly not listed in the program and who deserve great plaudits. Outside of a medleyoverture, the music does sound exactly as Piazzolla’s music.

The violin, bandoneon and piano made stunning sounds, alone, in ensemble, in Bach was well as Piazzolla. As an accordion player myself, the bandoneon is something of a mystery, but composerplayer Juan Pablo Jofre plays his instrument like a Steinway Grand.

Amazing technique. Ditto for violinist Eric Silberger, whose stylish technique was equally amazing.

Thus the good news. And the bad news?

Piazzolla’s genius could be stunning, as a few works were here. Yet he frequently wrote music that was lugubrious, bathetic...yes, dreary. Perhaps it was heartfelt, perhaps it echoed the despondency of the Piazzolla character given by Ms. Karsten. Yet through about half of the dozen works played, one felt that Piazzolla was eschewing his unquestioned genius in order to replicate a Tchaikovsky torpor.

This aside, That’s Not Tango is a fascinating, almost mesmeric exercise in acting and music. Like any great “serious” composer, Piazzolla speaks from his grave through Lesley Karsten, “I couldn’t love anyone as much as I loved music.” The torments and self-torture might have been invented or might be real. Yet at its best, Ms. Karsten’s emotions and the tangobased music can be spellbinding

That’s Not Tango is a Tantalizing Treat

By Ryan Leeds Jul 13, 2018 On a recent Saturday afternoon in June, I begrudgingly trudged downtown to SubCulture, the intimate, posh venue housed at 45 Bleecker Street. It was one of the first gorgeous days of spring that New Yorkers had the opportunity to savor and I regretted my decision to spend it in a dark basement with Astor Piazzolla.

“Who is Astor Piazzolla?” you might ask? The question itself would undoubtedly make the late, legendary composer wince. After all, there was no shortage of bravado and ego from this Argentinian legend.

Piazzolla is widely considered the father of modern tango. Originally born in Argentina, he immigrated to Greenwich Village in 1925 where he picked up the bandoneon, an instrument similar in look and sound to an accordion. As he matured, he became an arranger and composer, blending styles of classical and jazz to what would be known as Nuevo Tango.

Lesley Karsten is obviously a bonafide Piazzolla fan. So much in fact that she portrays the musical God in gender-bending fashion in That’s Not Tango- Astor Piazzolla, A Life in

Music. Karsten also created and cowrote the show which played a limited run last month. Next week, it will play four additional performances. The overall verdict: It’s worth skipping the tan for this tango.

Over the course of the show, Karsten, as Piazzolla, describes the trials and tribulations that life has brought him. From tense relationships with women, family, and other band members, no stone is left unturned.

There is stylish swagger in Karsten’s performance. Like the maestro himself, she seems to care less what people think, maintaining a cool, confident air throughout.

In between the life stories, audiences have the added bonus of listening to exceptional musicians: Brandt Fredriksen (piano), JP Jofre

(bandoneon) and Nick Danielson (violinist) transport listeners to a soul-filled realm of nirvana. Their exquisite flair makes one seem that this was music they were born to play.

Director and co-writer Stephen Wadsworth helms the production, but it would benefit from some visual stimulation and variety. For nearly two hours, Karsten never leaves her downstage right chair. Were there more interaction with the musicians or even some projections, it would add a simple but much-improved touch to what is currently a solid show.

Wadsworth and Karsten have exhaustively researched their subject and most people should walk away with a well-rounded portrait of a complex figure. Undeniably, they’ll leave with either a newfound or renewed love for Tango music.

Philip Greenberg, Artistic Director and Conductor

Dear Lesley, Words really escape me in saying what a monumental achievement your masterpiece is. You literally brought Piazzolla back to life. For those of us who know and love his music, you enabled us to spend an evening with the man himself. You brought us into his world, his heart and mind, all with a birds-eye view of the historical and social influences that shaped his genius.

Your intermingling of his words with his thoughts about music, the world, himself, and life itself, showed a profound understanding of him. I have no doubt that you created an entire audience of lifelong Piazzolla admirers.

The glorious music of Astor Piazzolla is infectious; it gets into your bloodstream, tugs at your heart and very soul. The joy of hearing this music with world-class musicians was a very rare treat indeed. Brandt Fredricksen is a pianist of enormous gifts. He has technique to spare, the rhythmic energy of a Stravinsky, and a complete mastery of all genres of

repertoire. And what can I say about the bandoneon prowess of JP Jofre?

If there is a better performer in the world of this instrument, I am certainly unaware of it.

This work should be performed at Carnegie Hall and important concert halls around the world. It should be performed throughout the United States, throughout the Latino world and everywhere that influenced this great genius and his music – from Paris to Pointe del Este and everywhere in-between.

Thank you for one of the most uplifting, life affirming and enjoyable performances I have attended in a very long time. Bravo to you and the wonderful musicians that brought this fantastic work to life.

With great admiration,

Philip Greenberg Kiev, Ukraine Oct. 22, 2012

Lesley Karsten and Brandt Fredriksen

“Piazzolla In New York” A Documentary Directed by Jude Allen Produced by Frog Films

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he story of Astor Piazzolla begins in New York City. That’s Not Tango creator Lesley Karsten takes filmmaker Jude Allen to some of Piazzolla's East Village haunts to explain the influence that the city had on him. While Piazzolla's tangos are associated with his beloved Buenos Ares, the urgency and grit of his music also reflect his childhood growing up on the mean streets of New York’s Lower East Side, listening to a mix of

jazz, klezmer, and classical music.

The film looks behind the psyche of the maestro as well as the making of the show, That's Not Tango.

Jude Allen is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her subjects have included Yo-Yo Ma, Manny Axe, Sir Roger Norrington, film composer John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

Joe’s Pub Tells the Life Story of Tango Master Astor Piazzolla in New Show

BY ROBERT VIAGAS July 28, 2017 Non-traditional casting for That’s Not Tango Joe’s Pub, the cabaret in Manhattan, will pay tribute to a master of tango music with an unusual musical biography of composer Astor Piazzolla that boasts some non-traditional casting. It will be presented for two performances, August 5 and 6.

That’s Not Tango—Astor Piazzolla, A Life In Music will trace composer Piazzolla’s life and career (1921-1992) with a cast led by a woman, Lesley Karsten, in the title role.

Karsten also conceived the show and co-wrote its libretto with Stephen Wadsworth (A Quiet Place).

Piazzolla is regarded as father of the musical style known as Nuevo Tango. “I hope people develop a personal relationship with the music and

understand what it meant to him,” said Karsten, who discovered the composer when she was asked to read Latin American poetry while a violinist performed Piazzolla in Fairfield, Connecticut, several years ago. “I want audiences to experience the man behind its urgency and power.”

Born in Argentina, Piazzolla was raised in Greenwich Village not far from where the show is taking place. He discovered tango music through his father’s record collection. His family returned to Argentina when he was 15, and he launched his musical career.

The show, which creators say has changed considerably since it premiered in New York for a limited run in 2016, will incorporate more music

performed by multi Grammynominated violinist Nick Danielson, pianist Brandt Fredriksen, and JP Jofre, who plays the bandoneon, the elaborate accordion associated with the tango.

“We've moved from a more straightforward narrative of the facts of his life into an exploration of the inner workings of the man,” Karsten said. “The premise is simple.

He’s dead, hates it and returns because he has unfinished business...with himself. He has regrets, struggles with isolation, memories of love lost. He gave what he had to give—and the music is astonishing— but he needs to set the record straight.

There’s a price to be paid for immortality.”

25th Anniversary of Astor Piazzolla's Death Inspires That’s Not Tango at Joe's Pub Jul. 31, 2017 A more revealing, soul-searching look into the life of Astor Piazzolla, considered the father of the Nuevo Tango, is at the heart of "That's Not Tango - AstorPiazzolla, A Life In Music," the critically-acclaimed show which makes its return Aug. 5 and 6th at New York's Joe's Pub. Conceived by Lesley Karsten and written by Karsten and Stephen Wadsworth, the team have refashioned their 2016 tribute to include more intimate details of the artist's life, including his doubts, struggles and regrets, and how they inspired and sometimes contradicted his celebrated musical career.

The staged production was singled out by the New York Times when it premiered in 2016 for its unique genderbending premise - the part of Piazzolla is played by a woman. As Piazzolla, Lesley Karsten delivers a compelling dramatic narrative that offers a deeper understanding of Piazzolla's life, from his rough childhood in New York to the fame he achieved for revolutionizing the traditional tango. The show unfolds through an interplay between storytelling and virtuoso performances of Piazzolla's music by JP Jofre

(bandoneon), Brandt Fredriksen (piano) and Nick Danielson (violin).

“We've moved from a more straightforward narrative of the facts of his life into an exploration of the inner workings of the man," says Karsten.

"The premise is simple. He's dead, hates it and returns because he has unfinished business...with himself. He has regrets, struggles with isolation, memories of love lost. He gave what he had to give -and the music is astonishing - but he needs to set the record straight. There's a price to be paid for immortality."

Karsten and Wadsworth take us on an intimate journey into Piazzolla's past, from his childhood in New York, years that shaped the man he would become, to his death at 71 in Buenos Aires.

Growing up on the Lower East Side, he was strongly influenced by the music he was surrounded by. Along with exposure to Bach, Stravinsky and Bartok, he heard klezmer from Jewish weddings, jazz from nearby clubs and tango-an idiom he initially rejected-from the scratchy records his father played.

A chance encounter with Artur Rubenstein when Piazzolla was 16 further inspired him to pursue music; he was soon taken under the wings of classical composer Alberto Ginastera and tango great Aníbal Troilo, and later went on to study with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Through her, the composer found his true calling.

From this gumbo of life experiences emerged a music that's intensely personal, yet universal and as beloved in Tokyo, Berlin and New York as it is In Buenos Aires. Since his death in 1992, Piazzolla's reputation has only grown with jazz giants like Gary Burton and Al di Meola and classical superstars like Yo Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax and Daniel Barenboim including his works in their repertoires. His influence continues to be felt in the works of other significant composers, such as Osvaldo Golijov. As

tango reaches new heights in popularity, Astor Piazzolla is taking his rightful place as a towering figure in all 20thcentury music.

Karsten's creative journey began when she was asked to read some Latin American poetry while a violinist performed Piazzolla in Fairfield, Connecticut. Rather willfully, Karsten admits, she rejected the poetry and adapted elements of Piazzolla's biography instead. The piece, which was part of a chamber music series, had lines out the door and around the corner.

"I hope people develop a personal relationship with the music and understand what it meant to him," Karsten says. "I want audiences to experience the man behind its urgency and power."

Named by American Theatre one of the most influential stage directors of the 21st century, Wadsworth is a veteran of Broadway, the West End and opera companies throughout Europe and the US, including the Met. He has directed such wildly diverse playwrights such as: Terrence McNally, Anna Deavere Smith, Beth Henley, Ken Ludwig, and composers Peter Lieberson and Daron Hagen. Working with Leonard Bernstein, he wrote the Grammynominated opera A Quiet Place. He was a Playwriting Fellow for Sundance at the Ucross Foundation and the McCarter Theatre, and currently teaches directing at Juilliard.

Story and Musical Consultants include: Kip Hanrahan, Piazzolla's longtime associate and the producer of his seminal CDs Tango Zero Hour and La Camorra, and Fernando Gonzalez music critic, writer and translator of Natalio Gorin's "Astor Piazzolla: A Memoir."

New Orleans, October 24, 2018

Loyola University Music Series presents the tango Ana Gershanik anagersh@aol.com An exciting musical performance about the life and music of Astor Piazzolla, the father of Nuevo Tango, will take place at Loyola University’s Nunemaker Hall as part of their “Music Series” on Oct. 26 and 27, at 7:30 p.m.

Entitled “That’s Not Tango - Astor Piazzolla, A Life in Music,” the show, which was highly acclaimed by the New York Times during its performance there, was conceived by Lesley Karsten and written by Karsten and Stephen Wadsworth.

Piazzolla revolutionized tango music in the 1950s and 60s by infusing tango with jazz and classical music and playing with a full orchestra. He took tango from his native Argentina into the major concert halls of the world.

Karsten is a documentary filmmaker, vocalist, musician, and actress who has worked on the PBS documentaries, Forgiveness: A Time to Love; A Time to Hate and Into the Night - Portraits of Life and Death. Her experience translating personal narrative into vivid story-telling, coupled with her love of music, inspired this collaboration.

In a gender-bending performance, she portrays Maestro Piazzolla, offering a deeper understanding of Piazzolla’s life, from his rough childhood in New York to the fame he achieved for revolutionizing traditional tango. The New York Times singled out the staged production when it premiered in 2016 for its unique premise about the part of Piazzolla being played by a woman.

Wadsworth was named “one of the most influential stage directors of the 21st Century” by American Theatre magazine.

He is a veteran of Broadway, the West End and opera companies throughout Europe and the U.S., including the Met. He has directed many playwrights and composers and wrote the Grammy-nominated opera A Quiet Place. He was a Playwriting Fellow for Sundance at the Ucross Foundation and the McCarter Theatre, and currently teaches directing at Juilliard.

The production at Loyla brings three virtuoso musicians and an actor to the stage in a mix of storytelling and performances of Piazzolla’s music. The musicians are JP Jofre on bandoneon, Brandt Fredriksen on piano and Nick Danielson on Violin.

Jofre is an award-winning bandoneon player and composer considered to the premier bandoneonista of the modern age.

He has been repeatedly praised as one of today’s leading artists

by Great Performers at Lincoln Center. His music has been recorded by Grammy winner Paquito D’Rivera, and has been choreographed and performed by Herman Cornejo, principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre. Jofre has taken his form of contemporary tango to venues around the world, including San Antonio Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Argentina’s National Symphony Orchestra.

Award-winning pianist Fredriksen is the music director and pianist of the show. He is a founding member of New York’s Ensemble Respiro. He has performed recitals and concerts throughout the world. He has several recordings, including solo piano music for the soundtrack of the award-winning documentary film Sonia, and chamber music composed by Nickitas Demos for the film A Free Bird. Most recently, he recorded piano for New Music from Greek and Greek-American Composers for Albany Records.

Among his many collaborations, violinist Danielson has performed and recorded at venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, with world renowned tango and contemporary Argentinian ensembles and musicians such as Paquito D’Rivera, Pablo Ziegler, and Wynton Marsalis. He has performed on Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning recordings in both genres and has recorded two solo albums. He is the Assistant Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra.

“I hope people develop a personal relationship with the music of Piazzolla and understand what it meant to him,” said Karsten. “I want audiences to experience the man behind its urgency and power.”

Astor Piazzollainspired Show To Run at Joe’s Pub

by Ellen Johnson Jul 18, 2017 A 2016 musical biography tributing composer Astor Piazzolla is coming to Joe’s Pub in early August.

“That’s Not Tango – Astor Piazzolla, A Life In Music” was written by Lesley Karsten and Stephen Wadsworth and is unique not only in its premises, but in its casting as well. Piazzolla, whose life the story depicts and celebrates, is played by a woman. Karsten is cast in the role, and she plays a compelling and fierce Piazzolla, giving audiences a deeper look into the composer’s life.

The show, which originally ran last summer at SubCulture, returns this summer at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater on August 5 and 6. It offers a narrative on Piazzolla’s life, beginning with his childhood on the Lower East Side and all the way up to his death in Argentina in 1992.

“I hope people develop a personal

relationship with the music and understand what it meant to him,” Karsten has said. “I want audiences to experience the man behind its urgency and power.”

The story is a depiction of Piazzolla’s life and the revolution of the tango with music and storytelling throughout. His music is performed in the show by JP Jofre on bandoneon, Brandt Fredriksen on piano and Nick Danielson on violin.

A New Yorker revolutionizes tango in Astor Piazzolla musical ‘That’s Not Tango’ LINDA LABAN JUNE 21, 2016

a biography but a fusion that blends play-like stretches interspersed with performances by JP Jofre — who, like Piazzolla, is a master bandoneón (a square-built button accordion) player — pianist Brandt Fredriksen and Latin Grammy-winning violinist Nick Danielson.

Leave it to a New Yorker to give tango a sensational new spin.

When Astor Piazzolla burst onto the music scene in the mid-20th century, it was with a style that blended his native Argentinian tango with his upbringing in the cultural melting pot of NYC. The composer and musician infusion of jazz and classical styles gave rise to its own genre: nuevo tango. It was so different from traditional tango that a naysayer once famously quipped to Piazzolla, “That’s not tango,” hence the title of the new production based on his career, That’s Not Tango — Astor Piazzolla, A Life in Music, coming to SubCulture for five performances beginning June 22, [2016].

“Piazzolla didn’t write music for dance; he said he made it to be listened to,” says co-creator Lesley Karsten. “He had bigger ideas for the form.”

New York City-based Karsten, a documentary filmmaker, pianist and singer, became a Piazzolla fan some 20 years ago, not long after his death in 1992.

“He lived next door to a synagogue and heard klezmer,” she explains of his life in Lower Manhattan in the

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JP Jofre rocking the bandoneon, which Astor Piazzolla also played.

1920s. “He heard the jazz coming out of Harlem, he heard his father’s tango records, and later when he heard a pianist playing Bach it enraptured him.

He created music that was distinctly his, yet it is so universal in its appeal.”

Perhaps that’s why Piazzolla’s music has yet to become a thing of the past.

Musicians from jazz great Gerry Mulligan to cellist Yo-Yo Ma have performed Piazzolla’s compositions, and YouTube clips of his performances have been played over 10 million times.

In keeping with Piazzolla’s style, “This Is Not Tango” is neither a musical nor

The tango dance style is described as a conversation between a man and a woman, hence its passionate backand-forth “discourse.” This plays into an unexpected element of “That’s Not Tango” — Karsten herself stars a gender-swapped Piazzolla.

“What I was really writing about was the androgyny of the soul,” explains Karsten. “The soul isn’t male or female, how can it be? Organically, not by design, it does fit with the current gender identity conversation.”

In his lifetime, Piazzolla himself also transcended conformity: The son of Italian immigrants grew up speaking English, not Spanish, the language of his birthplace. “His music is just so extraordinarily rich,” enthuses Karsten. “It’s an amalgam of all that it is to be human.”

Brandt Fredriksen

Creative Team

Actor-writer LESLEY KARSTEN has had an extraordinary and varied career in film and music.

Karsten began her professional life as a literary agent in Los Angeles. She moved to New York to pursue a career in documentary film, allowing her to work on projects covering such diverse subject matter as mental illness, the class system in Great Britain, the Mormons, infidelity, and the spiritual aftershocks of 9/11.

Working with renowned documentary film producer, Helen Whitney, Ms. Karsten served as associate producer of a two-part special for PBS entitled Forgiveness: A Time to Love; A Time to Hate. She recently completed work on a two-hour documentary Into the Night – Portraits of Life and Death, also with Ms. Whitney, premiering on PBS in Spring 2018.

Karsten has studied both piano and voice and served as cantorial soloist of New York's Congregation Da'at Elohim.

Her experience translating personal narrative into vivid story-telling, coupled with her love of music, inspired this collaboration. thatsnottango.com

STEPHEN WADSWORTH, writer/director, is a groundbreaking writer and director for the stage. American Theater has called him “one of the most influential directors of the 21st century.” For his translations of classic French stage works he was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France.

In opera he wrote A Quiet Place with Leonard Bernstein (GRAMMY nom) and the story for Daron Hagen and Gardner McFall’s Amelia. He is acclaimed for his direction of the Seattle Ring cycle and the operas of Handel, including Rodelinda at the Metropolitan Opera, where he also staged productions of Boris Godunov and Iphigénie en Tauride. He has directed new work by such diverse writers as Beth Henley, Ken Ludwig, Peter Lieberson and Anna Deavere Smith, and he recently directed Terrence McNally’s Master Class on Broadway and in the West End. His work on plays from Aeschylus, Shakespeare and Marivaux to Shaw, Wilde and Coward have established him as a master of the classic repertoire.

At the Juilliard School he is the The James S. Marcus Faculty Fellow, recipient of the John Erskine Faculty Prize, and creator, with Brian Zeger, of the first intensive acting program for singers in the world. bretadamsltd.net/stephen-wadsworth

FERNANDO GONZALEZ, is an Emmy winning and GRAMMY nominated arts writer, critic and musician.

He contributes regularly to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation blog; the digital arts magazine Artburst Miami and writes the blog Jazz With An Accent. He also has been the Associate Editor of The Latin GRAMMY Print & Special Projects for The Latin Recording Academy since 2011.

His affiliations include stints as staff writer for The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe, correspondent for The Washington Post, Managing Editor of the music magazine JAZZIZ, columnist for Downbeat magazine and contributor to JazzTimes. He has written program notes for Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Edinburgh Festival, has contributed essays to National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, was the managing editor of El Sitio.com, a pioneering bilingual site (1999) and a columnist, writing in Spanish, for Eritmo.com, a Latin music website (2000-2002).

Complementing his work in arts journalism, González has been also active in record production, teaching, radio hosting and arts administration. He was the Curator of Jazz Programming for the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center, Miami (2005-2007) and translated and annotated Astor Piazzolla, A Memoir, as told to Natalio Gorín by Argentine New Tango composer Astor Piazzolla (Amadeus Press, 2001).

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, González majored in math at the University of Buenos Aires before pursuing music full time. He moved to the United States to attend Berklee College of Music, majoring in Composition/Film Music. He is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (GRAMMY®) and the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Latin GRAMMY ®). fernandogonzalezwords.com

KIP HANRAHAN, story and music consultant, is a composer, lyricist and record producer.

He founded american clavé Music in 1979 as a platform for his own work, and to work with musicians in creating their most personal art using the vocabulary of jazz, Latin and popular music. The label has been an artistic home for a wide range of artists, including Astor Piazzolla, Don Pullen, Steve Swallow, Allen Toussaint, Charles Neville, Brandon Ross Robby Ameen, Jack Bruce and Ishmael Reed.

Hanrahan was a long-time associate of Astor Piazzolla, and produced three of his recordings including Tango Zero Hour, considered by many (including Piazzolla himself) to be Piazzolla's best work and consistently praised for the elegance of its production.

Hanrahan's widely acclaimed body of original work is an art music that reinvents popular forms to reveal complexities and possibilities otherwise obscured.

As one critic put it, "it's art you can dance to." His most recent recording, Crescent Moon Waning, was released on May 3, 2018. americanclave.com

ASTOR PANTALEÓN PIAZZOLLA (March 11, 1921 July 4, 1992), Argentine musician, a virtuoso on the bandoneón (a square-built button accordion), who left traditional Latin American tango bands in 1955 to create a new tango that blended elements of jazz and classical music. He was a major Latin American composer of the 20th century.

Born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Piazzolla moved with his parents to New York in 1925. He received his first bandoneón at age eight and learned to play both that instrument and the piano as a child.

When the family returned to Mar del Plata in 1936, Piazzolla began playing with a variety of tango orchestras. At age 17 he moved to Buenos Aires. He formed his own orchestra in 1946, composing new works and experimenting with the sound and structure of the tango.

Piazzolla’s life work includes compositions for orchestra, big band, bandoneón, and cello for night clubs, concert halls, film, television, and commercials.

His innovations, including counterpoint and new rhythms and were initially not well received in his country, but they were greatly admired in the United States and Europe.

He moved to Paris in 1974 but returned to Argentina in 1985 where his new tango gradually gained acceptance, and his music influenced a new generation of tango composers. (Encyclopedia Brittanica) piazzolla.org

Winner of Artists International in 1991, pianist BRANDT FREDRIKSEN held debut recitals at Weill Recital Hall, Gasteig Cultural Center, and Vafopoulio Hall.

In 2003, Fredriksen was selected by the U.S. and China Foundation to perform recitals and concerti throughout China, a tour that included Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Shenyang.

A founding member of New York City’s Ensemble Respiro, he has collaborated with members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Detroit Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras.

Fredriksen has also performed with New Hellenic String Quartet, Harrington String Quartet, and members of the American String Quartet.

His recordings include works by Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, Strauss, Robeson and Raphael. He recorded solo piano music (Scriabin, Glinka, Ravel, Satie, Chopin and Prokofiev) for the soundtrack of the award winning documentary film, Sonia, produced by Lucy Kostelanetz. He has also recorded chamber music composed by Nickitas Demos for the Gregg Russell film, A Free Bird, and most recently “New Music from Greek and Greek-American Composers” for Albany Records.

Fredriksen holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, a Master of Music from The Juilliard School where he was the recipient of the Munz Award, and a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University. He has also studied at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary as a pupil of Ferenc Rados. Mr. Fredriksen’s other principal teachers were Mischa Kottler, Flavio Varani, Charles Fisher, Nadia Reisenberg, James Tocco, Stephen Kovacevich, Gyorgy Sebok and Martin Canin. brandtfredriksen.wordpress.com

A native of San Juan, Argentina, “J.P.” JOFRE is an award winning bandoneon player and composer. Mr. Jofre has frequently been highlighted by the New York Times and praised as one of today’s leading artists by Great Performers at Lincoln Center.

His music has been recorded by numerous renowned artists including 16time Grammy winner Paquito D’ Rivera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and choreographed/performed by ballet-star Herman Cornejo (Principal Dancer of the American Ballet Theatre).

A recipient of the National Prize of the Arts grant in Argentina, Mr. Jofre has performed his unique tango to universal acclaim worldwide. He has appeared as a soloist/composer with numerous orchestras including the San Antonio Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Argentina's National Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Jofre has participated in many prestigious festivals including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Umbria Festival, and Great Performers at Lincoln Center and has given lectures and master classes at Google Talks, TEDtalks, The Juilliard School, Dartmouth College and Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Jofre has been commissioned by violinistconductor Michael Guttman and violinist Francisco Fullana, in collaboration with the San Antonio Chamber Orchestra and Metropolis Ensemble, to write two double concertos for violin and bandoneon. Recently, virtuoso clarinet player Seunghee Lee commissioned Mr. Jofre to write a double concerto for clarinet and bandoneon. jpjofre.com

Heralded as “the next accordion star” by the Chicago Tribune, JULIEN LABRO is one of the foremost accordion and bandoneón players in both the classical and jazz genres.

Deemed to be “a triple threat: brilliant technician, poetic melodist and cunning arranger,” his artistry, virtuosity, and creativity as a musician, composer and arranger have earned him international acclaim and continue to astonish audiences worldwide.

Picking up the accordion at 9, French-born Labro was influenced early on by traditional folk music and the melodic, lyrical quality of the French chanson. Upon discovering the music of jazz legends, he quickly became inspired by the originality, freedom, creativity, and the endless possibilities in their musical language.

After graduating from the Marseille Conservatory of Music, Labro began winning international awards, including the Coupe Mondiale and the Castelfidardo, Marcel Azzola, Jo Privat and Medard Ferrero competitions. Labro then moved to the United States to further pursue his musical dream.

Piazzolla is a major influence and the reason Labro picked up the bandoneón.

It is also the title of his album with Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux and A Far Cry chamber orchestra.

Labro teaches master classes at such renowned institutions as Oberlin, Princeton, Hope College, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. julienlabro.com

Argentine-American violinist NICK DANIELSON enjoys a career as both a classical and tango musician. He began his studies at the Curtis Institute at 13 and appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra at 15.

After Curtis, Danielson played with the Chester Quartet, then joined New York's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Danielson has performed on Grammy- and Latin Grammywinning recordings in both genres. He is featured in Stravinsky's Concertino on the Grammy-winning CD, Shadow Dances, on Deutsche Grammaphon. Among his many collaborations, Danielson has performed and recorded with Paquito D’Rivera, Pablo Ziegler, and Wynton Marsalis.

Since 1992 he has served as Assistant Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, with which he performs often as solo violinist.

He has recorded two solo albums, Tango and Obsession, and Sur: Violin Music of Argentina. nycbo.org/ musicians/ danielsonn

Virtuoso violinist ERIC SILBERGER is a prize winner of the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in 2011. His performances have been described by critics as “spinetingling…astonishing” (The Guardian), “dazzling virtuoso playing” (The Washington Post), “impeccable level of playing, a wonderful musician” (Heather Kurzbauer, The Strad), and “ ….he has got everything in his favour, technique, composure and personality. We are on the eve of a great soloist” (El Pais, Spain).

Eric has performed as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States and around the world, including appearances at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Louvre in Paris, the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, The Moscow International House of Music in Russia, Shanghai Grand Theatre in China, Royal Festival Hall in London, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, the National Arts Centre in Canada, and more. Among numerous television and radio appearances in the United States, Asia, and Europe, he was featured on Radio France, STV in China, KBS in Korea, and WQXR, WFYI, FOX 59, WISH-TV, and NPR, among others.

An avid chamber musician, Eric frequently performs chamber music internationally. He also has a special collaboration with bandoneonist and composer JP Jofre and the JP Jofre Hard Tango Chamber Band.

Eric received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. Mentors have included Glenn Dicterow, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Robert Mann, and Dorothy Delay, among others. He was also mentored by Maestro Lorin Maazel. ericsilberger.com

Thank you so much for helping us bring “That’s Not Tango” to life!

Astor Piazzolla, 1950s

Notes & Credits Although the role Astor Piazzolla plays in this work is entirely ctional, he was a real person as are all other persons represented here, living or deceased. Authors have made every effort, based on publicly known historical resources, to accurately depict events, locales, relationships, statements and opinions by and about the composer. Occasionally and respectfully, authors have created supplemental statements consistent with the character of the person represented.

Thanks to Piazzolla Music Publishers Past and Present Caroline Kane of Schott Music Corporation/European American Music Distributors Co.; Frank Pagano and Sean McGraw of Downtown Music Publishing; Pat Stratta of Stratta Phillips Productions, Inc.; Kip Hanrahan of american clavé Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. Special Thanks Caymichael Patten and Barbara Gannen Graphic design and branding by Bill Weber Studios

Thank You to our generous supporters, who have made this production possible.

Anonymous Anonymous Anonymous Patricia Bauman Normal Beil Laurie Bernhard Alex Black Diane Blackman Branden Blinn Gary Bretton-Granator Emily Calhoun David Cohen Jeff and Cindy Cohen Roz Dauber Lisa Denning Mark Densen Garson Foos Bonnie Fox Jean Natalia Fraschina Gary Fredriksen and Wendy Letven Frank Freschet Margot Goldberg Nancy Hanrahan

David Hickey Gary Hochman Jill Holder Richard J. and Norah Holt Deborah Irmas Edith Kaplan Laurie Kaplan Rosemary G. Kaplan Amy Karatz Liza Karsten and Dan Nienaltow Janis and Tom Karsten Timothy and Karinna Karsten Janis Klein Ronald Klein and Doris Rosen Katie Lansdale Kate Lear Lynda and Stan Levy Gilda Machin and Joe Scarpacci Drs. Lisa Mann and Rocco Marotta

Ray McGarrigle Setsu and Oneness In Love Inc. Oswald Perez Jane Perin Abigail Rich Ellen and Paul Richman John and Nanci Rosenfeld Joyce Rosenzweig Oren Rudavsky Jeff Smith Emilio Solla Kenneth Solomon Joylynn Strange Katie R. Taber Charles Teague Franklin Tugwell Mouchette van Helsdingen Sarah Walton William Weigel Frank and Parm Williams

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