3rd Tango Music Contest 'Concurso del Ocho' is open for registration

Finals : march 19 in Nijmegen during the Doble Ocho festival

New : Winner will play at the Doble Ocho festival on march 19, but also will be invited to Sitges tangofestival( Spain), Berlin Tangofestival, café Ada (Wuppertal) and other venues (conditions aply, see the concurso website)

This music contest is for amateur musicians, music students and semi-professional (tango)music groups and musicians worldwide. Concurso del Ocho want's to stimulate the creation of new innovative arrangements of existing compositions.

The participants are invited to re-arrange the song 'Buenos Aires'. (Music : Di Sarli , lyrics : Roberto Florio, Text :Manuel Romero) This song is chosen in reference of the 200 year celebrations of the existence of the Republic of Argentina in 2010. Music Score can be found here

Main Objectives
The concurso want's to stimulate and discover new musical talent and offer a podium for this talent and possibilities for a breakthrough in the professional circuit. Also the Concurso want's to be a meeting place for musicians worldwide, podium programmers, festival directors and music labels and of course tangodance and music lovers. With the professional jury the Concurso stands for quality and realises a selection in tango groups and musicians.

Jury 2009 Competition
- Dhr. Wim Warman
Piano player, Composer, teacher and trainee coordinator CODARTS Rotterdam
Pianist with Sexteto Canyengue in ’96
- Mr. Robert Schmidt
Pianist, initiated several tango groups in Berlijn such as Tango REAL and Sabor a Tango
- Mrs. Marie Cécile Moerdijk
Ethnomusicologist, Singer, Actress, Author // jury member for various competitions like the Elisabeth Concours
- Mr. Lukas Groen Composer and Conductor
- Ms. Maria José Ortiz Singer, guest teacher Rotterdam Conservatorium

New: For the 2010 edition several podia in Europe have given the intention to invite the winner of the competition. Deals have been made with Int. Tangofestival Sitges in Spain (july), café Ada in Wuppertal, Germany and in Holland De Toonzaal in Den Bosch. ( see rules )
New: Next to the main price we introduce the music stimulation price for amature musicians
(this price is for NON Conservatorium Students or semi-Profs)

Maria Fernandez and Norman Peplov, winners talent price 2009



more information :
http://www.doble-ocho.com/concurso/concurso88-eng.htm
tango@dds.nl

Tango on Unesco World Heritage list

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Tango was declared part of the world's cultural heritage by the United Nations on Wednesday and granted the international seal of approval Argentina and Uruguay have long sought for the dramatic dance and its sensual moves.

The 24 members of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee of Intangible Heritage granted the tango dance and its music protected cultural status at its meeting in Abu Dhabi.

The designation may make Argentina and Uruguay, which both claim to be tango's birthplace, eligible to receive financial assistance from a specialized fund for safeguarding cultural traditions. It will also help both governments justify using public funds to preserve their most famous export after to beef.

"We are very proud," Hernan Lombardi, the minister of culture of the autonomous city of Buenos Aires told the Associated Press on the phone from the Emirates' capital. "We hope this decision will help spread the tradition of tango all over the world."

foto : Lucien Lecarme
Tango emerged as a dance style in the late 1800s in the suburbs of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Uruguay. It is popular in Europe, Japan and the United States. The recent spike in tango's popularity throughout the world is in part attributed to the Broadway hit "Forever Tango" and TV's "Dancing With the Stars."

"Tango is a feeling that can be danced, and that feeling of course is passion," Lombardi told the AP on Wednesday.

The popular image — willowy, spike-heeled women spinning, kicking and lunging across the floor in the arms of tuxedo-clad men — is known as show tango. The kind danced in milongas, or tango dance halls, is more waltzlike, but equally sensual.

Argentina and Uruguay have long been embroiled in a clash over the birthplace of the great tango crooner Carlos Gardel. They kicked aside their differences last year in a joint effort to persuade UNESCO to list tango among UNESCO's traditions worth safeguarding for humanity.

on youtube

International tangofestival Buenos Aires honours Pugliese

The Tango Festival is a multitudinous celebration of the genre in all its varieties, and the driving force of a series of activities whose influence stretches throughout the year: the encouragement to the creation of new works, the recovery and value enhancement of the genre’s heritage, the stimulus to artistic excellence, the fostering of stylistic diversity and culture consumption, and the promotion of creative industries of the field.

The 7th Tango Festival strengthens those historical lines and establishes itself as the main showcase of the tango activity, a place where the big names of the genre and the new generations can talk freely.

Highlights
( august 15 ) Pugliese honoured
This Saturday from 8pm the stage of the Teatro Avenida will be honoured with the “Pugliese Night,” a tribute to the legendary pianist and composer, a key figure of the Argentine popular music of the 20th century. The event will gather several of the great musicians who performed with him in the different periods of the orchestra led by the unforgettable Osvaldo.

Tango dance competition
The Dance Championship is the celebration that establishes Buenos Aires as a mecca for tango dancers from all over the world. This event will choose the best dancers in the categories “Salon Tango”, which stresses the social aspect of the tango dance as a typical porteño practice, and “Stage Tango”, which aims to enrich the dance from a choreographic point of view related to the performance as a show.

Throughout the Championship, the audience will also enjoy milongas, exhibitions, free theme classes, dance shows and Works in Progress of the most prestigious companies. The spirit of the great party is already sensed.

( august 16 ) Electro tango
Tanghetto & San Telmo Lounge
The electronic touch of the milongas of the city turns into a multidisciplinary party, attended by electronic tango ensembles, dJs and dancers. The soundtrack of Buenos Aires in the 21st century.
25 agust
NARCOTANGO & OTROS AIRES


Cantadores de Tipica

In the forties, tango experienced a unique dynamism: the balance between the singer’s performance and the role of the conductor. It was a society where the artistic credits were distributed in equal parts. Singers were musically reassured by the ideas of the conductor, and thus were an equally important member of the orchestra and achieved great success, while the audience welcomed this harmonious match. The show Cantores de Típica recreates that historical moment through the singable repertoire from those days, which has been specially transcribed for the festival. The figures of the show are Alberto Podestá, Juan Carlos Godoy, Rubén Cané, Osvaldo Ribó and Lalo Martel, who will be recreating their hits with the orchestras of Miguel Caló, Pedro Laurenz, Alfredo De Angelis, Ricardo Tanturi and Angel D’Agostino. This time with a ten-musician orchestra, the audience will have once again have the opportunity to listen live to Percal, by Podestá; Papel Picado, by Ribó; Muchacho, by Cané; and Godoy and Martel will be recalling their greatest hits with De Angelis. Gabriel Soria, the author of the idea together with Cecilia Orrillo, will be hosting the show.
Sunday 16, 9pm - Teatro Avenida



22 august

HOracio Ferrer

Horacio Ferrer’s friends from four decades of appearances in the country and abroad will be singing and playing at this show whereby the whole city thanks the great lyricist for his devotion and poetry. Ever since his collection of poems Romancero Canyengue, in 1967, Horacio Ferrer stirred up the poetics of tango with his aesthetics and lyrics. He was summoned by Astor Piazzolla and later by Salgán, Tarantino, Stamponi, Garello and Aznavour, among others. He wrote Chiquilín de Bachín, La Bicicleta Blanca, Milonga del Trovador, Soy un Circo, Buenos Aires Es tu Fiesta, Renaceré, Balada para un Loco, Balada para mi Muerte, Fábula para Gardel and many more classics. His Operita (tango opera) María de Buenos Aires, premiered in 1968, is the most worldwide performed Argentine play. He gave birth to a unique style of reciting with a music accompaniment, appearing throughout Europe, the Americas and the East. Ferrer has authored over thirty books of poems and history, where his work as a researcher of the history of tango is on equal footing to his work as a poet. In 1990 he founded the Academia Nacional del Tango (Tango National Academy), with its seminars, archives and international museum, plus all the corresponding academies in the rest of the country and abroad. Medal of Honour from the University of Paris, La Sorbonne, Professor Honoris Causa from the Universidad del Salvador, Doctor Honoris Causa from the Instituto Universitario de Bellas Artes, awarded by the Festival de San Remo, Fondo Nacional de las Artes and Sociedad de Autores y Compositores.


see the full programme day by day

Buenos Aires Declares a Swine Flu Emergency

BUENOS AIRES -- The Argentine capital city, hit hard by the H1N1 flu strain, commonly known as swine flu, declared a health emergency and said it will add two weeks to school holidays in July. Argentina's Health Ministry has reported 26 swine flu deaths in the country, but local press reports indicate the toll is higher and rising, as the Southern Hemisphere winter bites hard.

Argentina ranks third in terms of confirmed swine flu deaths, behind the U.S. and Mexico, according to data from the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The emergency declaration gives Buenos Aires city health authorities expanded power to cut through red tape to buy medical supplies or to take other measures they deem necessary. Buenos Aires officials said they would add two additional weeks, starting next Monday, to schools' winter vacations, which had previously been scheduled to start July 20 and run to the end of the month.

"I ask kids to stay in their houses and avoid large groups of people to avoid contagion," said Mayor Mauricio Macri. Authorities from surrounding, separately governed Buenos Aires province said they too were imposing the emergency measures.

The announcement in the capital came one day after federal Health Minister Graciela Ocana resigned, under fire for the government's handling of swine flu and a previous outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever. Argentine news reports said Ms. Ocana had recommended postponing midterm elections, but was overruled. The elections took place Sunday, and many poll workers donned surgical masks. Analysts said the swine flu problem, hitting the nation on the heels of the dengue outbreak, has laid bare inadequacies of the national health system, which has fallen victim to the country's recurrent economic crises.
Matt Mofett ( Wall street Journal )

Farewell to Pina Bausch, the dangerous magician of modern dance

Beautiful and strange, tragic yet hopeful, Pina Bausch's creations entranced the audience. The news of her death is terribly sad – and a challenge for dance-makers.
Anger and danger ... The Rite of Spring at Sadler's Wells in 2008. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
You can count on one hand the number of modern-dance-makers who have changed the landscape – and Pina Bausch was one of them. Even though she never created a style that could be taught in the classroom, as Martha Graham or Merce Cunningham did, her influence went far and deep. It's now impossible to enumerate the hundreds of works heavily indebted to her unique brand of dance theatre, trying to imitate Bausch's surreal voyages into memory, pleasure and pain. Even those who hated her productions never forgot them.

Bausch believed passionately in choreography but her works were not primarily about dance. She wove her material out of movement, speech, theatrical imagery and music, often starting out with no more than a feeling. She worked closely with her dancers, drawing on their own fantasies and experiences; in her darkest works, Bausch was famously accused by New Yorker critic Arlene Croce for indulging in a "pornography of pain". Not only did her productions feature brutally explicit confessionals, with the dancers spewing out shocking revelations of misery, hatred or desire, some of the choreography was so angry and dangerous that the performers seemed quite literally at risk of damaging themselves.

It was a formula that many choreographers imitated, but few came even close to achieving. There was a combination of terror, beauty, strangeness and even bawdy comedy in the worlds that she and her designers invented, from The Rite of Spring, in which the floor of the stage was covered in dark peat, to Nelken, where it was carpeted with carnations. In Victor, 20ft walls of mud flanked the dancers, so that they appeared like a lost tribe unearthed in an archaeological dig. It was the monumental magic of Bausch's productions that inspired and won assorted devoted followers including stage directors such as David Alden and film directors such as Federico Fellini and Pedro Almodóvar.

The first time Bausch and her company performed in London, back in 1984, audiences felt they had never seen anything like it. (Some wished they hadn't; every night, half the theatre walked out.) But she became a cult. Fans travelled the world, following their favourite productions. Dancers queued up to audition for her company. And while Bausch's most recent productions may have lacked the intransigent vision of her greatest works, they never lost the capacity to amaze and entrance.

Her last performance in London was a double bill of early work, The Rite of Spring and Café Müller, which drew on Bausch's childhood memories of her parents' boarding house in Solingen, north Germany. It was a performance that I was meant to be reviewing on the night. But sitting at my computer, still reeling from the savage dread and ecstasy that had been generated in Rite, still haunted by the indefinable mix of tragedy and hopefulness in Café Müller, I kept forgetting the ticking of the clock. I kept forgetting to write.

For the world of dance, news of Bausch's premature death is a terrible sadness. It's also a terrible challenge. Many of her productions have been recorded for video, but that's not the same as seeing them live. The urgent task for her colleagues and her dancers is to ensure that at least some of them survive for the theatre too.
Judith Mackrell
The Guardian

Al Di Meola explores tango's Italian roots

As a precocious teenager, Al Di Meola cut his musical teeth playing guitar with Chick Corea's pioneering electric band Return to Forever, which he joined in 1974. The instrumental quartet created a potent and propulsive mix out of rock, Latin music, and jazz, and the guitarist's debut with the group, Where Have I Known You Before, quickly became one of the classics of fusion. Di Meola performed with RTF for a couple of years, then created his own group, writing tunes inspired by Corea's multifaceted approach.



“Of the three fusion groups that started the movement—Return to Forever, Mahavishnu [Orchestra], and Weather Report—thanks to Chick I think we were the strongest compositionally,” says Di Meola, reached in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he was born and raised. “Playing strong and challenging instrumental pieces really helped form the growth period for my own way of composing.”

But in time Di Meola came to realize that fusion just wasn't moving him. “The music didn't hit my heart,” he says. “It didn't bring me to the depths of the feelings I might get from certain classical music, or what I experienced when I first heard Astor Piazzolla.”

Di Meola met the late Argentine master of nuevo tango when both were touring Japan in 1985. “Everyone in his group was very warm. It was like meeting long-lost friends or my Italian relatives. His dates and mine often coincided. We kept talking and hanging out, and developed a strong friendship. Piazzolla's music was so emotionally wide-ranging and at the same time technically difficult and challenging. He promised to send some charts and a piece to do my own thing with.”

Di Meola recorded “Tango Suite” with the first edition of World Sinfonia, the band he formed to take his original music in more of an acoustic, global, and soulful direction, and to explore the new possibilities opened up for him by Piazzolla. “World Sinfonia primarily plays my own compositions, but I can't picture ever not doing some Piazzolla, because it's so close to me.”


The two artists found much in common. Both had parents who emigrated from Italy, and as a boy Piazzolla spent seven years in New York. The Argentine master revealed something his compatriots would rather keep quiet.

“Piazzolla told me tango originated in Napoli [Naples] and at first had nothing to do with Argentina, though it developed there. That resonated strongly with me because the connection is very profound—and here I am now with two Italians in World Sinfonia. Our music is a combination of jazz improvisation and many different Latin rhythms, which we syncopate. That distinguishes it from other renditions of tango. It has all that I always liked most in fusion but on a much wider palette.”

Al Di Meola's World Sinfonia plays the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on Monday (June 29).

written By Tony Montague
source

Tango Pianists Rotterdam CODARTS appreciated !

Maria Martinova en Barbara Varrassi graduated from CODARTS

These 2 fine tango musicians have graduated from the Rotterdam Conservatory, section Argentine Tango ( CODARTS )

Maria Martinova
Maria Martinova

(Info about Maria from the website www.otra-rotterdam.nl:)
Born in Varna, Bulgaria, Maria began playing the piano at the age of seven, inspired by a rich heritage of musicians and artists in her family. She completed her early training at the Varna School of Music and Arts, finishing with the highest distinction prior to being accepted at the Bulgarian National Conservatory. Her studies there were interrupted after only two years by an invitation to attend the Juilliard School in New York City, where she was accepted as a recipient of the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship. At Juilliard she studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Joseph Kalichstein, as well as Felix Galimir, Albert Fuller and Samuel Sanders. Maria holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard and a Master of Music degree from the Royal Academy of Music, where she was a student of Hamish Milne and won the Foundation and the Leverhulme Awards. She also taught on behalf of the Royal Academy of Music for several years.

more about Maria Martinova


Barbara Varassi Pega
Info about Barbara in Dutch from the website www.otra-rotterdam.nl :
Bárbara Varassi Pega (Argentinië) volgde haar opleiding piano in Argentinië en aan het conservatorium van Milaan te Italië. Ze specialiseerde zich in de Argentijnse tango onder leiding van de maestro J. Martinez Lo Re. Ze toerde door heel Europa en Zuid-Amerika met vele verschillende groepen, o.a. met de International Company "Buenos Aires Tango".

http://www.myspace.com/barbaratangotinto

Podesta meets Luiz Stazo and Marcucci in Berlin Tangofestival 2009

photo: Lucien Lecarme
POR PRIMERA VEZ EN ALEMANIA, ALBERTO PODESTA FUE OVACIONADO EL LUNES PASADO EN SU PRESENTACION CON LA ORQUESTA DE LUIS STAZO, STAZO MAYOR, EN UN CIERRE MEMORABLE DEL FESTIVAL DE BERLIN en el que participo tambien el maestro ALFREDO MARCUCCI como bandoneonista invitado.

Gente de otras ciudades de Alemania llegaron a Berlin para ver al maestro Alberto Podesta, quien llego a Berlin auspiciado por la Direccion de Asuntos Culturales de la Cancilleria Argentina.

Sorprende lo que puede provocarle a otras culturas tan diferentes nuestra musica ciudadana, y mas sorprende derribar el mito que la difulcultad del idioma hace perder el interes en el tango cantado. Este festival demostro lo contrario. El maestro Allbero Podesta es hoy el cantor mas bailado en el mundo entero. Todos los dias, los milongueros de los puntos mas distantes del planeta bailan "Junto a tu corazon", "Percal", "Que falta que me haces", entre tantos otros tangos emblematicos que grabara en los años 40 con la orquestas mas bailadas como las del maestro Carlos Di Sarli, Francini-Pontier y Laurenz, entre otros . Estos tangos fuerona algunos de los 10 temas que el maestros Podesta canto en el Tamgp Festival Berlin 2009.

Ovacionado, homenajeado con grandes muestras de cariño, Alberto Podesta desplego su estilo de CANTOR de tango junto a los grandes maestros Luis Stazo y Alfredo Marcucci con quienes se reencontro despues de tantos años. Luis Stazo (uno de los fundadores del Sexteto Mayor junto al gran Pepe Libertella, quien actua permanentemente en Europa junto a su sexteto Stazo Mayor) y el bandoneonsita argentino Alfredo Marcucci (quien reside en Bruselas desde hace 50 años).

Aqui van dos videos domesticos ya levantados a Youtube y algunas fotos de este encuentro, incluso una del maestro Podesta con el LP que le llevo de regalo a su gran amigo Luis Stazo, un disco que grabara con direccion y arreglos de Stazo en setiembre de 1970.

Estuvo presente el embajador argentino en Alemania, Sr. Guillermo Nielsen junto a su esposa y Maria Laura De Rosa, Agregada Cultural.

Tambien se adjuntan algunas fotos de este encuentro.

Ya casi a punto de cumolir sus 85 años y sus 70 con el tango, cuando comenzaba como cantor de la Orquesta de Miguel Calo a los 15 años, la vida le da una vuelta muy feliz a su carrera al permitirle llegar a escenarios tan distantes y disfrutar del cariño de un publico que demostro saber perfectamnte de quien se trataba y que lo bailan y lo escuchan en Hamburgo, Amsterdam y Berlin (como lo demostro la gente que llego de esas ciudades cercanas).



Maria Alejandra Podesta
Management & Prensa
Cel. 15 5103 5288

Alberto Podesta meets Stazo Mayor after 10 years in Berlin for the Tangofestival. During the concert of Stazo Mayor, also Alfredo Marcucci will play in the orchestra. It became a night not to be forgotten quickly. Podesta is equivalent of 70 years of living tango history, with own compositions like Percal and well known songs like Nada. During the concert Podesta gave his very best to sing Percal for the enthousiastic Berlin festival crowd, supported by the bandoneons of Luiz Stazo and Marcucci. Earlier that afternoon Stazo embraced Podesta after 10 years again in front of their hotel in Berlin. They made a record together in the 50's and Podesta brought the original record to Berlin (see photo ).
Who knows where whe have the rare opportunity to see these maestro;s perform again ?
Lucien Lecarme

photo: Lucien Lecarme

Wereldomroep Special about the Tango-culture in the Netherlands

El tango es un producto de exportación rioplatense que se vende en lugares tan remotos como Estambul, Berlín, Milán, Toronto o Japón. Otro de los destinos fijos de sus músicos, con una abultada age...

Impression about the force and influence of tango ( music ) culture in Europe, and specially Holland. Impressions of the Tango Music Concurso during the Doble Ocho festival with winner Arrastre tango, interviews with Jorge Fautaurus (tango teacher) and Julian Parelta (Astillero tango).




Watch this video Fullscreen

Tango Music News - May - July 2009

source :
Marίa José Ortiz Management & Productions
www.patchamama.org
Artist on tour: www.marjoproductions.eu
News: http://stichtingpatchamama.blogspot.com/


- Guitarras Tango in Belgium
date and place: May 16th 2009,20.30 hrs. Ambers, Belgium
web: Zuiderpershuis www.zuiderpershuis.be
Guitarras Tango will performance with the famous Cuarteto Cedron from Buenos Aires at Zuiderpershuis. They will present their first Cd ´Flor De Lino´ , www.myspace.com/guitarrastango


- Trio Quasimodo, Cd Release `Amsterdam´ in Buenos Aires
date and place: June 2nd,21.30 hrs. Torquato Tasso, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
web: www.torquatotasso.com.ar
Cd release in Buenos Aires ´Quasimodo Trio´ CD ´Amsterdam´. This cd was produced by Marjo Productions, Patchamama Foundation (NL) and Fundacion Rojo (Argentina)and recorded in Amsterdam and Ambers during October 2007, with the Tango String Quartett ´Cuarteto Recopado´ directed by Martijn van der Linden. www.myspace.com/quasimodotrio
They will release the Cd ´Amsterdam´and the first Cd of Cuarteto Recopado ´Four, for tango´ www.myspace.com/cuartetorecopado next May 22nd 2010, at the Tropen Theater www.kit.nl in Amsterdam.

- Quinteto Arrastre directed by Elliot Muusses, broadcast in The Netherlands.
date and place: June 14th, from 14hrs-15hrs www.concertzender.nl

Elliot Muusses and Quinteto Arrastre will broadcast live at Concertzender. They were winners of the Second Edition of ´Concurso Doble Ocho´ for new talents. www.myspace.com/elliotmuusses - www.doble-ocho.com -
INTERVIEW with Ellio Muuses, founder of Arrastre Tango
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vqtpDVrg5w&feature=related
Open booking for 2009-2010


- Astillero, tango de ruptura from Argentina, in North Sea Jazz, July 12th 2009 - www.myspace.com/orquestaastillero
date and place: July 12th 2009, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. North Sea Jazz Festival, stage: Congo zaal , 22.30 - 23.45
web: www.northseajazz.nl
After their fantastic shows during October-November 2008 and April 2009, Astillero will present their new Cd ´Sin Descanso en Bratislava`
Press (NL) http://www.cultuurpodium.nl/2009-04-19/astillero#body


- Los Taitas, Tango Tinto, Narcotango and more at Tango Woche Festival, Zurich, Switzerland.
date and place: July 25th till August 2nd 2009.
web: www.tangowoche.ch/en_index.html
Tangoweek 2009 will take place from Saturday 25th of July to Sunday, the 2nd of August in Zurich. During this time you have the opportunity to attend different dance classes and to meet world-known tango artists from Argentina.
During the 9 days this festival offers everything what any tanguero and tanguera dreams of: workshops with outstanding maestros, open air milonga, marathontango, first-class shows and lots of nice people from all over Europe.

- Open air milonga in Amsterdam Noord, Summer 2009 and more...
the programme to be anounced, http://tolhuistuin.nl/#

-ON SPHINX MUNDIAL FESTIVAL MAY 21
La Sieste du Dromadaire - Karaktervol tangokwartet 17u
La Sieste du Dromadaire brengt hedendaagse tango met eigenzinnige composities. Een uniek tango-ensemble met een bijzondere instrumentale bezetting van electronische gitaar, trompet, viool en bandoneon.
www.myspace.com/lasiestedudromadaire
Santiago Cimadevilla - bandoneon, xylofoon
Ananta Roosens - viool, trompet, trompetviool
Marcos Di Paolo - elektrische gitaar
Joris Vanvinckenroye - contrabas, effecten

Quinteto Arrastre wins Doble Ocho Music Contest

The winner of the second tango music contest 'Concurso del Ocho 'is the quinteto Árrastre 'founded by guitar player Elliot Muuses. The quinteto played during the Doble Ocho friday night salon after the winner was announced by Mr. Marani, Cultural Attachee from the Ambassy of the Republic of Argentine. They competed earlier that friday april 10 with 2 other finalists, Maria Fernandez and Norman Peplov and the trio Papas Calientes. The Concurso del Ocho is sponsored by dance centre El Corte, and founder Eric Jeurissen handed over the special Concurso award.


The professional Jury was formed by :
- Dhr. Leo Vervelde
Artistic Manager RWMA
Leader & Director Gran Orquesta Tipica OTRA
- Mr. Julián Peralta,
Piano player, Composer, member of Asterillo Tango
- Mr. Lukas Groen
Composer and Conductor
- Ms. Maria Jose Ortiz
Singer, guest teacher Rotterdam Conservatorium

Watch an impression of their performance here



The final performance of Arrastre is filmed by WERELDOMROEP. Is is a special about Argentine Music in Europe/ Netherlands. Also Juan Parelta from ASTILLERO is interviewed in this special. watch it on YOUTUBE

Read an interview with Elliot Muuses, founder of Arrastre, here ( in Dutch )

Elliot Muusses and Quinteto Arrastre will broadcast live at Concertzender

Quinteto Arrastre will also be broadcasted on RADIO in The Netherlands.
date and place: June 14th, from 14hrs-15hrs www.concertzender.nl

Maria Fernandez winner of Prix du Port 2009

Singer Maria Fernández is winner of the second edition of the Prix du Port, a prestigious music prize for talented students of the Rotterdam Conservatorium 'CODARTS '. Maria won 10.000 euro after a breathtaking final with impressive performances. Director of the Rotterdam harbor enterprise, Mr. Hans Smit handed over the price. During the Doble Ocho Music Competition, Maria had won the encouraging prize with her Piano player Norman Peplov. She will play with him during the Gala dinner of the Antwerp Tango festival end oktober 2009.


Zangeres Maria Fernández is de winnaar van de tweede editie Prix du Port, de prestigieuze prijs voor muzikaal toptalent van het Rotterdams Conservatorium Codarts, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Na een zinderende finale met indrukwekkende optredens ontving zij zaterdagavond in het nieuwe Luxor Theater uit handen van Hans Smits, president-directeur van het Havenbedrijf Rotterdam 10.000 euro en een beeld van de Nederlandse kunstenaar Eric Claus. De Your World Port publieksprijs ging naar zangeres Maria João Mendes. Zij ontving een cheque van 2.500 euro.


Maria Fernández nam het tijdens de grootse finale-avond op tegen vier andere Codarts-studenten in een avondvullend programma dat gepresenteerd werd door Sanne Wallis de Vries.

De vakjury bestond uit juryvoorzitter Martijn Sanders, actrice Annet Malherbe, Graham Sheffield (directeur Barbican Centre in London), zangeres Lílian Vieira en cellist Ernst Reijseger. Zij beoordeelden de vijf finalisten op muzikaliteit, vakmanschap, concept en presentatie. Het niveau van alle deelnemers was erg hoog en voor zowel de jury als het publiek was het dan ook een moeilijke keuze.


De winnaar

Maria Fernández (studente aan de Rotterdam World Music Academy) gaf samen met pianist Norman Peplow een zeer persoonlijk optreden. Haar verhalende songs vormden een eerbetoon aan de muziek uit de Zuid-Amerikaanse en Spaanse traditie. Volgens de jury “bleef ze hiermee erg bij zichzelf. Met haar prachtige stem betrok ze het publiek bij haar ontroerende verhaal en was ze in staat om met weinig middelen een zeer mooie performance neer te zetten”.

Prix du Port 2009

Prix du Port is een initiatief van het Havenbedrijf Rotterdam, Codarts, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten en het Luxor Theater Rotterdam . De prijs van € 10.000 wordt gesponsord door het Havenbedrijf Rotterdam. Hiermee wil het jong talent aan zich binden en stimuleren tot grootse prestaties.
De Your World Port publieksprijs werd aangeboden door Your World in het kader van Rotterdam Jongerenhoofdstad van Europa. Your World Port is het gezamenlijke initiatief van haven en stad.

Sitges hosts 2 festivals from 2009

The organisation of the very well known Tangofestival in Sitges have split up and what is left is 2 festivals in the beautifull Spanish Barcelona sattelite city of Sitges. And.... almost at the same time. The 'old 'festival will start the monday july 13 and the NEW festival starts wednesday the 15th. Both end sunday the 19th of July.

The names of the 2 festivals are
1. ( the old one )Tango Sitges Festival Internacional.
2. ( the new one) XVI FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE TANGO DE SITGES 2009

The websites are
1. http://www.tangositges.com/
Line up :
Geraldine Rojas y Ezequiel Paludi
Pilar Álvarez y Claudio Hoffmann
Sabrina y Rubén Veliz
Natalia Vicente y Juan Manuel Nieto
Antonia Barrera y Jorge Pahl
Marion Krauthaker y Enrique Ringa
Diego Cornella
Orquesta HYPERION

and
2. http://www.festivaltangositges.com/
line up

SEBASTIAN ARCE Y MARIANA MONTES
MARIANO "CHICHO" FRUMBOLI Y JUANA SEPULVEDA
ADRIAN VEREDICE Y ALEJANDRA HOBERT
RODRIGO "JOE" CORBATA Y LUCILA CIONCI
DIEGO ESCOBAR Y ANGIE STAUDINGER
ARTURO GOMEZ Y CAROLINA PUJADES

Orquestas / Live Music:
COLOR TANGO de Roberto Álvarez (Buenos Aires)
CONEXIÓN TANGO (Barcelona - Buenos Aires)