SYO TangoOz Tour June-July 2016 It’s not every day – nor every year – that we tour internationally with our youth tango orchestra, so when this Maggie-nificent opportunity arose for SYO’s TangoOz, twenty or so talented young musicians (including four alumni), along with Casey and a few parents, leapt to take on the Australia-Argentina Emerging Artist Skills Development Project in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Led by violin and bandoneon tango extraordinaire Maggie Ferguson, TangoOz brought bandoneon players, pianists, double basses, violins, flutes, a clarinet, and a saxophone to South America. From making new friends and visiting spectacular sites to refining our tango style, every one of us had much to learn and gain from the unforgettable fortnight. After settling into an entirely new continent (thirteen-hour time zone difference to Sydney!), we were caught in a whirlwind of rehearsals and performances, concerts and rehearsal observations. And what an honour it was to sit in Orquesta Escuela de Tango’s rehearsal home Café Vinilo to watch and listen to them play under Maestro Victor Lavallen’s directorial excellence! Sectionals at La Casa del Tango with our tutors – esteemed members and associates of the Orquesta Escuela – taught us new techniques and reinforced old ones – most notably the “arrastre” (a dragging motion) and “syncope” (similar but displaced stress), percussive sound from string and wind instruments through different articulations, and “fraseado” (a pushing-pulling type of expressive phrasing). “An incredibly memorable and immersive experience!” writes TangoOz pianist, Thomas McCorquodale. “Buenos Aires and its people opened so many of their doors for us, and in return we had the opportunity to learn from their maestros, with their tutors, in some of their finest performance venues, recording studios and radio stations! It was as if we were locals of the city and members of the Escuela de Tango! “Without doubt our second home as an ensemble, one just as close to our hearts as Sydney. #phatmilonga #trendytangueros [sic]” McCorquodale continues. Musical highlights of the tour included a soiree at the Australian Embassy in Buenos Aires, a milonga night at La Viruta where we performed a set and learnt some tango dance steps, and were praised with a very humbling standing ovation on our departure; a lengthy recording session for our very own EP, followed by a live radio broadcast at midnight; playing the tango “Mistonguero” written by the Maestro with the Maestro; and our last performance, a concert in the Canelones Theatre in
Montevideo – where we were unfortunately missing several key players including our conductor due to sickness – but were applauded with yet another (double!) standing ovation. A few of us were so inspired that we want to return to Buenos Aires to take our tango studies further. A major setback for many of us was getting sick – either shaking off the common cold from the 14 or so hours of flying and few hours of ferrying each way, or catching a virus – but nothing an Argentinian steak or schnitzel or pizza (or salad) couldn’t fix. The sights we saw made up for all of it: the enchanting sidewalks of La Recoleta cemetery, the splendid Teatro Colon (BA), and Teatro Solis (MV), the grand bookshop El Ateneo, the colourful neighbourhood La Boca, and a day of cycling in Montevideo were all indescribably beautiful. Delving into the maté (tea) culture, looking for the Obelisk to get back to our hotel, testing our agility while avoiding copious amounts of dog doo on the streets, rushing to get onto the Subte (subway system) before the blaring alarm sounded and the ruthless doors shut, flipping tiles for bananagrams, and mentally calculating Aussie dollar to Argentinian and Uruguayan pesos, as well as practising the phrases “agua con/sin gas” and “dulce de leche” became daily routine. A colossal thank you to Maggie, Casey, Yarmila and SYO, parents, Steve, the Uruguayan Club in Sydney, Ignacio, our tutors both at home and overseas, and our tour guides, (and also everybody else who has helped us with generous support) for their combined efforts to make the tour such an enjoyable experience, and of course, Air New Zealand for taking us under their wing with their tour sponsorship – none of this would have been possible without everyone involved!! We must also extend a special mention to Naomi (violin, current member) and Jacqui (violin, alumna) for their prolific patience in helping to communicate and translate from English to Spanish and vice versa. Liz Cheung July 2016 This is Liz’s third year in TangoOz on flute and piccolo, and she sometimes writes recipes and shopping lists.