News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301 InternetFor Immediate Release
Contact: David Myhre 609/258-4177 dmyhre@princeton.edu
Date: February 16, 1998
Acclaimed Argentinean Composer Offers Piano Recital of Tango Improvisations
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Gerardo Gandini, a noted composer and pianist from Buenos Aires, Argentina, will interpret Argentinean tango in a piano recital entitled "Postangos: Improvisations on the Tango." The recital will be held at 8 p.m. on Friday, February 27, at Taplin Auditorium of Fine Hall on the Princeton University campus (the doors open at 7:30 p.m.). It is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in University lots 5, 20, and 25.
The rediscovered popularity of the tango stems in great part from the masterful compositions and interpretations offered by the late master of the bandoneon, Astor Piazzolla, whom Gandini accompanied on piano in the late 1980s. The recital is an opportunity to recall the musical legacies of tango masters such as Carlos Gardel, Juan Carlos Cobián, and Piazzolla himself.
Gandini's career spans nearly four decades. He currently serves as the musical director of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and director of the Center for Contemporary Music Studies at the Catholic University of Argentina. His more than 100 works include the symphony Fantasía Impromtu and an opera, La ciudad ausente (libretto by Ricardo Piglia), which drew rave reviews at its Buenos Aires premiere in 1995. (A brief biography of Gandini follows.)
GERARDO GANDINI
Gerardo Gandini, who is both a composer and a pianist, was born in Buenos Aires in 1936. He studied composition with Alberto Ginastera and later on with Goffredo Petrassi at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Rome. His piano studies were guided by Pía Sebastiani, Roberto Caamaño and Ivonne Loriod.
As a composer he has received many awards and scholarships. Among the latter, that of the Italian Government (Rome, 1966) and a Guggenheim (1982). He was awarded the Municipal Prize for Composition (Buenos Aires, 1960), first prize at the international contest organized by the Congress for the Freedom of Culture (Rome, 1962) and in 1977 the French Government granted him the Molière Prize for theater music. In 1996 the National Fund for the Arts awarded him the Prize for Artistic Achievement and in that same year he received the National Music Award for his opera La ciudad ausente (The Absent City).
Several of Gandini's works have been recorded, among them Fantasia Impromptu, by the Louisville Orchestra (U.S.A.) with the composer as soloist, Soria Moria, by the Camerata Bariloche; Fantasia para clarinete y piano by Mariano Frogioni and the author, Música Nocturna IV for guitar and string quartet, by Irma Costanzo and the Quartet of the University of La Plata. His record Antología Personal I features several of his main piano works. He has composed two operas: La casa sin sosiego (The unquiet house), with a text by Griselda Gambaro (premiered in 1992) and La ciudad ausente (The Absent City), with a libretto by Ricardo Piglia from his novel of the same name. This last opera has enjoyed, since its first performance in 1995, great public and critical success.
Gandini has taught at the Juilliard School of Music of New York, at the Instituto Di Tella (Buenos Aires), at the School of Music of the City of La Plata (Argentina). He has also been advisor to the National Fund for the Arts and member of the jury at a great many international composition contests. He has conducted several chamber music ensembles -among them Sinfonietta- with which he premiered many works by Argentine composers, especially the younger ones. Gandini was in charge of the Contemporary Music courses at the Goethe Institute of Buenos Aires during four years and has taught composition at the School of Music of the Catholic University of Argentina and the School of Fine Arts of the University of La Plata (Argentina). He has also directed the Contemporary Music Workshop of the San Telmo Foundation/Goethe Institut of Buenos Aires and was in charge of one of the composition workshops of the Antorchas Foundation (Argentina). At present he is the musical director of the Teatro Colón, Argentina's leading theater, and director of the Center for Contemporary Music Studies of the UCA (Catholic University of Argentina).
0216-gandini.html