ORT Presents a Virtual Evening of Tango Music
The Orchestra della Toscana (ORT) presents a celebration of Tango music on the evening of February 18. The live concert, bringing to life the joyful music of Argentina and Spain, will be conducted by Nil Vendetti in onstage at Teatro Verdi and broadcast to a virtual audience. Nil Vendetti, hired as a principal guest conductor by the ORT in 2019 at age 24, trained as a cellist at the Conservatory of Puglia and later received her diploma in conducting from the Conservatory of L’Aquila.
The performance begins at 9 pm and is free for all listeners on ORT’s Facebook page and Youtube channel.
The concert pays tribute to the innovative Argentinian composer, Astor Piazzolla, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. A virtuoso on the bandoneon, Piazzolla is most credited for his contributions to tango music and the creation of nuevo tango, a new tango that combined elements of jazz and classical music in the 1960s. Though his new compositions were first met with hesitance by tango traditionalists, gradually nuevo tango gained popularity throughout the States, Europe and finally, Argentina.
Piazzolla’s music will be reinterpreted by the Latvian accordion soloist, Ksenija Sidorova. She started studying classical music at six years old when her grandmother, a lover of traditional music, taught Sidorova how to play the accordion. Since then, Sidorova has continued her passion, to create a repertoire spanning from Bach to modern composers such as Piazzolla himself. Tonight she plans on playing two of Piazzolla’s pieces from il Concerto per bandoneon, Aconcagua followed by Libertango as well as a piece from Manuel de Falla’s 1915 ballet El Amor Brujo and Alberto Ginastera’s Estancia. (mirabella shahidullah)
