BY CELINE CHONG, LEAD WRITER (QLD)
Argentinian tango, a passionate and enticing feast for the ears…what’s not to love? Flora Wong (violin), Cara Tran (piano), and Chloe Ann Williamson (double bass) are three musicians who don’t need convincing about the appeal of this music. Together, they form Tango Enigmático, a Brisbane trio that specialises in this evocative genre.
After a sold-out debut performance last November, the trio is back for round two at Glasshouse, a brand-new contemporary art and music space in Brisbane.
In the lead-up to their gig, we chat to Chloe about all things tango, ensemble start-ups, and their upcoming world premiere of a new piece by Australian composer Owen Salomé.
Hi Chloe, so nice to meet you! Tell us, what drove you, Flora, and Cara to start up Tango Enigmático? Did the lucky stars align, or had it been in the works for a while?
Thanks Celine, likewise! The driving factor behind Tango Enigmático was our shared desire to explore the wide world of Argentinian tango music.
Before forming the ensemble, Flora, Cara, and I all studied music at the University of Queensland, and had all worked together in a number of different contexts. Even though we weren’t explicitly planning it, I guess it probably had been bubbling under the surface for a while, particularly given our shared interest in exploring other musics. […] Initially, we were just going to organise a one-off concert. But then, well, it grew!
So, why Argentinian tango in particular? What is it about this music that Australian audiences need to experience?
Argentinian tango is a great genre to work with, because it combines the complexity of chamber music and improvised elements with a popular dance-style that has (mostly) bite-sized forms and structures.
As classical musicians, all three of us came to tango by playing the music of Astor Piazzolla, as his nuevo tango style is a fusion of classical and jazz music ideas with traditional Argentinian tango. It’s a unique sound that most classical musicians and music fans equally love. Though, having learnt more about the nuances of tango over the years, I find Piazzolla’s music even more powerful when performed with the stylistic conventions that are not marked on the page.
I think it is important for Australian audiences to not only experience this, but to also experience the other new tango music of today. We’re excited that almost half of the music in our upcoming concert was written by living composers. So there are a lot of new sounds to be experienced by classical, jazz, world and, of course, tango music audiences alike!
Starting up a new ensemble is no easy feat, so congratulations on such a successful launch. What was your start-up process like, and did you face any unexpected challenges?
Thanks for your congratulations – it means a lot! While not an easy feat, it was certainly made easier by the support and guidance of those around us. It takes a village, as they say! I think that Flora, Cara, and I complement each other well with our individual skillsets. We all have diverse experience, not only musically, but more broadly in an administration/business and life sense as well.
We were also very fortunate to have some generous help from kind friends – Steve Minon who helped with our branding, and Alex Jamieson who took our photos. And even with all that, it wouldn’t have been what it was had we not had such an incredibly supportive, sold-out audience!
I think being passionate about making it happen made it seem like there were no challenges. Though truth be told, the ongoing challenge with playing tango is finding good arrangements. There is a lot of incredible tango music out there, just not a lot written or arranged for our specific instrumentation! It has forced me to do more arranging, which I’m really enjoying, and has made us all start to think outside the box when it comes to repertoire.
For your upcoming, second concert, you’ll be premiering a new piece – Hecho por Mano by Owen Salomé. What has it been like to work with him on this project? How have you found the interaction between new music and established genre?
Owen has been amazing to work with. Shortly after returning from Portland mid-last year, I went to Sydney to play with his tango ensemble Tángalo. I told him that I was in the process of starting up a new tango project with Flora and Cara (I was probably whinging about the lack of arrangements for our instrumentation!), and asked him if he would consider writing a piece for us. How lucky for us that he said ‘yes’!
Despite being incredibly busy preparing for his move to Buenos Aires (he’s currently studying there, and was recently appointed as bandoneónist with the modern tango sextet of the national University of the Arts), he started writing Hecho por Mano in country Victoria, and finished it in hectic Buenos Aires.
We’ve sent him rehearsal recordings, and the process has highlighted what a humble and flexible composer he is. With his experience as both a composer and a tango musician, I think Owen has nailed creating a tango piece that is new but with elements of the traditional tango genre, which is perfectly suited to Tango Enigmático’s vision of performing tango music with influence and innovation!
Is there anything in particular you as a trio hope to convey through Argentinian tango? What do you hope audiences will walk away with when they come to a Tango Enigmático gig?
I feel like Carlos Gavito, a famous Argentine tango dancer, summed it up perfectly when he said: ‘I think those who say that you can’t tango if you are not Argentine are mistaken. Tango was an immigrant music… so it does not have a nationality. Its only passport is feeling.’
Music and dance are unifying forms of expression evident across all cultures. And I believe that it is important to share these artforms with audiences so that they are exposed to new ideas that can help them to grow and broaden their minds.
Ultimately, I hope audiences will walk away from our gigs having heard something that makes them feel like they’ve just returned from an evocative musical adventure without the expense or hassle of a trip to Buenos Aires!
Take your trip with Tango Enigmático at 7pm, May 5 at Glasshouse.
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