News

CON TANGO – TEACHING YOUNG PEOPLE THE ART OF TANGO MUSIC 2004-2008

Tango music has long been a favourite of students at music institutions in Australia. I was no exception (Maggie’s story) https://www.maggiefergusontango.com.au/about/

The challenge is how to play and teach tango music effectively.  It is the popular music of the portenos of Buenos Aires with a history rich in poetry and  joy but also in poverty, suffering and survival of immigrants against awful odds. As well, the music is constantly evolving.

A key to the challenge may lie in the fact that Australia has its own migrant history.

Many tango students I have taught in Australia come from various national backgrounds. Some of these places include Great Britain, Europe, Japan,Vietnam, The Philipines, Taiwan, South Korea and China. Have the children of our migrants unknowingly inherited a love of this music which so prolifically documents one and a half centuries in the Rio De La Plata across the Pacific Ocean which separates our countries?

It partly answers the question I am frequently asked…”why, as an Australian, do you want to play tango music?”  The answer is I feel compelled to play it and pass on what I learn.

The students in some cases are very young, however can feel the passion the music contains and asks of them. My task is to show them that passion does not replace technique and that personal experience can help a person empathise with the composers’ intentions and feelings,  not overshadow them.

In these videos recorded at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2008,  the bandoneon player is Martijn Van Eijkelenborg and the students are aged from 8 to 20 years old