Born in Mar del Plata, March 11, 1921
Died in Buenos Aires, July 5, 1992
- Born in Argentina to Italian immigrants, Piazzolla was a bandoneón child prodigy who grew up in New York’s Greenwich Village.
- As a young person, Piazzolla worked in Argentine dance bands and studied classical music with Alberto Ginastera.
- Piazzolla studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, who encouraged his unique blend of tango influenced by classical and jazz styles, which he called tango nuevo.1
- Piazzolla is responsible for bringing Tango, the beloved national genre of Argentina, to the international stage. However, many native Argentinians disapproved of the composer’s tango nuevo and thought his music cold and cerebral.
- Nevertheless, Piazzolla’s distinctive voice is widely appealing and accessible to lovers of classical, jazz, and popular music.2
Learn More
Biography from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Biography from Britannica
Sources
- Cliff Eisen, “Piazzolla, Astor,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed December 11, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000045192.
- Rob Ainsley, “Composer of the Month: Astor Piazzolla,” BBC Music Magazine Vol. 28, No. 8 (2020): 54-57.