Tomas Nessi

Tomás Nessi, will be giving a piano recital for Mozarteum Argentino, at Teatro Gran Rex on September 21. The program will include works of Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Prokofiev. Tickets are free and can be requested at the theater's box office a few hours before the show.

It's a curious thing the music this Spring brings us. Tomás won the 2009 Biennale Youth Contest, so it's interesting that this year right after watching him, we get to listen to the winner of this year's edition. How lucky!

Tomas' resume is long for his age: 20. He started his formal studies in La Plata, Province of Buenos Aires, at the age of 9 but he first approached piano at 5.

He has given recitals in La Plata, in various concerts halls in the city of Buenos Aires and also throughout different provinces of Argentina.

He has performed solo with the Chamber Orchestra of the City of La Plata, Academic Camerata of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata and Symphony Orchestra of the Argentinian Public Television, under the direction of Roberto Ruiz, Carlos Sampedro, Bernardo Teruggi and Marcelo Zurlo.

In 2004, he won third prize in the First National Contest for Young Players organized by Radio Nacional and Temporada Allegretto in Argentina.

In 2005, he won second prize in the contest "Constructing Peace and Unity", organized by Northlands School and Asociación Música Viva.

In 2006, he got first prize at the "Alberto Ginastera" National Piano Contest, organized by Scala de San Telmo and the International Contemporary Music Encounters Foundation. This allowed him to offer a recital in the International Festival of Contemporary Music directed by composer Alicia Terzian in 2008.

In 2009, he won the Shell-Festivales Musicales Biennale Contest for Young Talents, and later toured some provinces of Argentina and recorded a CD along with the winner of the Singing and Chamber Music categories.

In 2010, he won three scholarships that allowed him to keep expanding his talent: Fondo Nacional de las Artes', Mozarteum Argentino and Instituto Cultural de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.

In 2011, a German Academic Exchange Service granted him a scholarship to continue studying at La Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Colonia Germany.

We hope you enjoy this program and this musical month in Buenos Aires.

Almost perfect

There are certain things that happen every day that prevent our country from being as good as it could be. You would easily notice these things if you visited.

People are always complaining for varied reasons. Protests are a common reaction to some sort of unjust treatment, some injustice. There is a contrast between people that accept and respect rules and those that don't. This is generally a reason for
arguments. In situations where you would expect to get a mature response from a citizen you receive the opposite.

For example, people here like to cut in line (at an airport, bus line, store, bank, etc.). Some will take your parking space even if you were there first. People will even take parking spaces reserved for pregnant women or handicapped individuals. When you stop at a red light or if you’re traveling in public transportation, you often get approached by people claiming to belong to an institution asking you to make a contribution. Sometimes they give a pretty good speech and convince you; even if they don’t, you somehow end up giving them money.

We’ve already covered the issue of disobeying traffic rules. It’s a classic.
Most of the time, you can get away with almost anything. If by some remote chance you do get stopped while doing something wrong when you’re driving, you will either be "invited" to bribe the police officer in order to avoid getting a ticket or get away with some lame excuse.

If you park your car on the street, you will be approached by "cuida coches" (unofficial car keepers) and be told to pay an arbitrary amount of money for a service that you have not requested (the service of looking after your car). Most of us will pay, as we care for our car and don’t want an angry car keeper taking out his anger on it, do we? If you don’t pay, you may find a scratch on your door, usually done with a key, pen or sharp object. Although illegal, no one is there to keep these people from doing this.

A typical way of protesting about an issue is to block streets and freeways (this method is also used by unions and student groups) and to make noise with their "bombos" (a local percussion instrument). Does this attitude solve anything? Do they think about the people that are stuck in the riot? Does it occur to them that these people could be late to work? Protesters would answer: "who cares!" and go on making more noise or, why not, burning a few tires.

This is pretty much a portrait of daily life in Argentina. Why could this be?

When Argentina started out as a nation in the 1800's, our leaders had clear
ideas, they wanted to become a modern, developed nation. Argentina had
a democratic government and democracy allowed an open debate on
important issues in a professional way. Democracy had made everyone more tolerant.

In the 1800's, it was thought that education, hard work and patience were
the way towards developing personally and as a Nation.

In the 1900's the government's capacity to exchange ideas deteriorated throughout all the different governments Argentina had – Conservative, Radical, Peronist, Military. Many leaders chose friendship, family ties and political loyalty instead of merit to fill government jobs. These decisions, among many others, took a toll and hindered the country’s true potential. These decisions drifted Argentines away from their road towards sustainable progress and order and put them on their way towards laziness, chaos and a desire for instant gratification. It is now that matters, and by being clever, we can achieve what we want, even if the means to achieve it it are not entirely right.

We call that "viveza criolla", the unofficial daughter of intelligence, it has
little to do with effort and a lot to do with individualism.

In a mature society that works well, institutions function as they should, jobs are
assigned to the people that are most qualified for them, values exist and
are respected, ideas are put into practice and education is highly valued.

Felix Luna, a famous Argentine historian once said he was unwilling to
write about certain topics in Argentinian history because it made him feel
ashamed. We have many virtues as a country. We are blessed in so many ways.

I wish we would just wake up and change our least appealing features for good.



Post by Valeria Mendez Cañas
Photo: Buenos Aires, 1920.

Ludmila Plagiero

Photo by Raul Bolivar Seguel, Chilean photographer based in Paris.


Argentinian ballet dancer, Ludmila Plagiero is an example of a dream
well achieved.

If you are stuck in Buenos Aires like thousands of other people, unable
to get on a plane and fly cause the airports are a mess due to volcanic
ash activity, we suggest you get someone to drive you down to La Plata's
National Theater to see Ludmila star in the ballet "Sleeping Beauty".

Like many well known Argentinian ballet stars, Ludmila studied ballet
at the Institute of Arts of the Colon Theater. She had only taken six
months of ballet classes when she auditioned. She says luck had a
lot to do with her success, but we think she underestimates her
talent. When she finished her studies at the Institute of Arts, she
moved to Santiago de Chile to continue with Ballet there.

From Chile she started making choices. She won a contest that was the
ticket to an audition in the American Ballet Theater, where she was hired
for a year, but her true dream was to work in Europe. A friend of hers called
to invite her to audition in L'Ópera de Paris which generally gives starring
roles to ballerinas that have attended their school since childhood and have
dealt with it's bureaucracy . Many people told Ludmila that chances were little
of her making it in Paris, and that she should stick to the more "realistic"
options.

Ludmila figured she had nothing to loose, nobody new her in Paris and she already had a job. She figured she just had to keep calm while she was auditioning and give the best she had to give. Ludmila broke her own expectations and became a principal figure in L'Ópera de Paris. She knew her choice was risky (or so everyone told her) but it didn't matter to her because she was following her dream. Ludmila says all of her decisions "came from her heart" and that her key is "to work hard and to never stop dreaming".

We hope you can make it to Sleeping Beauty! we are sure you will be delighted by her performance tonight or on Friday. Enjoy! 

Horacio Lavandera

Argentinian pianist, Horacio Lavandera is performing with the Chamber Orchestra of Chile, tomorrow at 8:30 pm at Teatro Colon. Although the event has not had a lot of press, tickets are almost sold out. They will playing Beethoven's Overture "Prometheus", Emperor Concerto,"Eroica" Symphony.

If you have a chance, go, it's the type of experience one never forgets.

Horacio Lavandera is pure talent and he has put a lot of work into developing it. He was taught music by his father in early childhood. At the age of seven, he started taking piano lessons. He is currently 27 years old. He was a prodigy while growing up, has won innumerable prizes and has performed all over the world.

Many traits make Horacio Lavandera unique, starting from his passion and the enthusiasm he puts into his work as well as his ability to dominate any technically difficult score and to handle the piano keyboard with such detail that he can achieve any dynamic expression written in the score brilliantly.

The biggest difference between Horacio Lavandera and other pianists, we believe, is that when he plays, he really shows you his work, he chooses works that are long and complex and displays the dedication he has put into every piece. Others, perhaps leave you feeling they should have played more.

Again, if you can, go to the performance with an open heart. Horacio Lavandera, will get to your soul.

If this is too short of a notice for you, on June 23rd, you can see him at Teatro Coliseo. If you can't make either performance, do yourself a favor and buy one of his records.

Hope to see you there tomorrow!



Photo: revista Ñ

Teatro Colón

If you have been to Buenos Aires, you must have noticed the incapacity
some Argentinians have when it comes to following rules. If you speak a little Spanish and have ever tried to understand the lyrics of at least, one tango song, you might have understood that the main character in the song has either gotten away with something or has beaten his opponent.He has done this by disrespecting rules, sometimes rules of honor, by cheating.

Tango songs and bad driving are typical of our culture. Take one second,
stand in any avenue corner, preferably by a policeman and observe how drivers
run yellow and red lights, drive on biking paths, or speed up when a pedestrian
is trying to cross the street.
Take note of the policeman, probably too busy texting messages on his cell phone or smoking a cigarette to catch drivers breaking the law.

While driving around town looking at the beautiful European architecture
the city is famed for, you will be intrigued by the magnificence of a
building that stands on Av. Cerrito and Viamonte: Teatro Colon, a jewel, not
only for its architecture but also for the art that is produced inside. The
theater reopened on 2010 after years of restoration work.

Unfortunately, it's not working at its fullest capacity because, just as
anything Argentinian, the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, that operates it, and a great number of members of its orchestra (grouped as a union) cannot
reach an agreement regarding working conditions. As a result, the opera that
was to open the theater's season: György Ligetis "Le Grand Macabre" was
put on stage under the direction of Baldur Bröinniman in a non orchestral version consisting of two pianos and percussion.

If you have stayed long enough in Buenos Aires, you must have realized another
thing about us: the ability to get by with what's available. You must
have heard a very popular phrase: "Es lo que hay" meaning: "This is what there is." So for example, although Plácido Domingo was recently scheduled to perform at the Colón, due to a series of events, he was unable to do so, and performed at the Obelisk instead. It was still a wonderful experience enjoyed by everyone and people were extremely happy, and he was too. It was a most memorable event.

There are some issues with the theater, yes, but next time you visit Buenos Aires (or if you're here now), do try to go to the Teatro Colón. It's an experience you don't want to miss. There are many ways to get a good feel for it. I suggest that you try them all:
1) book a guided tour: this will give you a good feel of all the details that must come together to put on a performance. You will walk by rehearsal rooms, you will see the way costumes are made for every show, etc.
2) buy tickets to a performance, the best ones are on a program called
"Abono del Bicentenario" (it only occurs once a month).
3) buy seats on higher floors.

If you book ahead of time, you will get good seats that will combine the possibility of seeing and hearing the performance, otherwise you will be missing the view.

The acoustics, the architecture, and the art you will encounter will make you walk out of there having had a very nice time. If something goes wrong, as it did with Ligeti's opera, you still will have had an experience in itself. After all, this is Argentina (and there is what there is).

For performances and guided tours visit www.teatrocolon.org.ar


Guest post by Valeria Mendez Cañas.