We often tell audiences to beware – tango is addictive. How did I get hooked? In the 1990’s while on a chamber music tour in Holland, I was invited by a young Dutch bandoneon player to a rehearsal of his tango band. It was Piazzolla’s “Soledad,” that six minutes of music, that resulted in my spending the next two years with friends trying to figure out how to play tango. In 1998, five of us founded QuinTango, produced our first CD, and set out on a mission to introduce U.S. audiences to tango music. To our amazement, we found an audience of Internationals living in D.C. who knew tango from their own countries. I especially remember an 80-yr old Turkish gentleman who tearfully told us he had waited twenty years to hear tango music in the U.S. Encouraged, we trekked to Argentina to work with great tangueros and to find arrangements (no tango music was available in US music stores back then). One of our Argentine arrangers dubbed our fusion of classical chamber music and Argentine tango, “chamber tango” – a description we still love.
Five years ago QuinTango entered a growth spurt. We invited Argentine bandoneonist Emmanuel Trifilio, a frequent guest artist, to permanently join our quintet of 2 violins, cello, bass and piano. We discovered we had a wonderful singer/songwriter/arranger in our bass player Ali Cook, and that both our pianist Julie Tucker and our cellist Susanna Mendlow were singers. When the pandemic struck in 2020 we had newly discovered talents and time to develop them. We created our first music video (“Peregrina”) and Emmanuel and Ali started writing compositions for our group. We created a happy hour zoom program where our fans from all over the globe came together monthly to hear our new music.
After 25 years, we are still trying to figure it all out. Creating new repertoire, expanding our audience, forging new partnerships, and playing for live audiences are what we love most. Last June we came out with our seventh CD, Obsesión, and toured it in Michigan, then Argentina and Uruguay in November; while in Buenos Aires, we began recording our next CD. We have a multi-arts residency on Martha’s Vineyard in March. We are working on a Texas tour in September. In October we are invited to a festival in Mexico. Meanwhile, we are super excited about sharing our music at Creative Cauldron here in Virginia and being part of the Passport to the World of Music Festival. Playing for our local fans is always the best!
Tango began in the immigrant barrios of Buenos Aries and Montevideo at the turn of the last century. The loneliness of being an outsider in a new world, the grit required to survive in that world, and a nostalgia for the world left behind are all themes of early tangos, themes that continue in QuinTango’s classic and original music.
-Joan Singer
Over its 25-year history, QuinTango’s performances have taken them from a Command Performance at the White House to memorable concerts in 28 states, at venues ranging from Stanford University and Lincoln Center Plaza, to churches in Appalachia and Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston. They have performed at international festivals in Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay and the Amalfi Coast—and toured in France, Italy, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Argentina and Uruguay. In 2019 the group expanded its repertoire to include original tangos and vocals, both made possible by the addition of new personnel. QuinTango’s commitment to education, community engagement and global partnerships coupled with their personal performance style has created a devoted community of fans across the globe. With 88 tangos on Spotify and 7 CDs, QuinTango’s music streams 20K times a week on six continents.
Five years ago QuinTango entered a growth spurt. We invited Argentine bandoneonist Emmanuel Trifilio, a frequent guest artist, to permanently join our quintet of 2 violins, cello, bass and piano. We discovered we had a wonderful singer/songwriter/arranger in our bass player Ali Cook, and that both our pianist Julie Tucker and our cellist Susanna Mendlow were singers. When the pandemic struck in 2020 we had newly discovered talents and time to develop them. We created our first music video (“Peregrina”) and Emmanuel and Ali started writing compositions for our group. We created a happy hour zoom program where our fans from all over the globe came together monthly to hear our new music.
After 25 years, we are still trying to figure it all out. Creating new repertoire, expanding our audience, forging new partnerships, and playing for live audiences are what we love most. Last June we came out with our seventh CD, Obsesión, and toured it in Michigan, then Argentina and Uruguay in November; while in Buenos Aires, we began recording our next CD. We have a multi-arts residency on Martha’s Vineyard in March. We are working on a Texas tour in September. In October we are invited to a festival in Mexico. Meanwhile, we are super excited about sharing our music at Creative Cauldron here in Virginia and being part of the Passport to the World of Music Festival. Playing for our local fans is always the best!
Tango began in the immigrant barrios of Buenos Aries and Montevideo at the turn of the last century. The loneliness of being an outsider in a new world, the grit required to survive in that world, and a nostalgia for the world left behind are all themes of early tangos, themes that continue in QuinTango’s classic and original music.
-Joan Singer
Over its 25-year history, QuinTango’s performances have taken them from a Command Performance at the White House to memorable concerts in 28 states, at venues ranging from Stanford University and Lincoln Center Plaza, to churches in Appalachia and Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston. They have performed at international festivals in Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay and the Amalfi Coast—and toured in France, Italy, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Argentina and Uruguay. In 2019 the group expanded its repertoire to include original tangos and vocals, both made possible by the addition of new personnel. QuinTango’s commitment to education, community engagement and global partnerships coupled with their personal performance style has created a devoted community of fans across the globe. With 88 tangos on Spotify and 7 CDs, QuinTango’s music streams 20K times a week on six continents.
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