Artistic Faculty 2024
The members of our artistic faculty, most of whom are joining us from Buenos Aires, rank among the world’s greatest tango players, composers, and bandleaders. They are also passionate teachers and experienced educators, dedicated to transmitting their knowledge of tango to students of any background and level of experience. They include:
- Paulina Fain
- Sebastián Henríquez
- Pablo Jaurena
- Morgan Luker
- Exequiel Mantega
- Guillermo Rubino
- Ignacio Varchausky
- Juan Villareal
All instruction and educational materials will be presented in English.
Paulina Fain
Flutist and composer Paulina Fain is one of the most prominent tango pedagogues in the world. She is the director of the Método de Tango series published by Ricordi House, a unique series of bilingual instrumental method books. She is the author of The Flute in Tango volume in that series, which presents her original method for applying tango phrasing and articulation to the flute and other wind instruments, opening new avenues for those instruments in tango. She is also the director of Tango Para Músicos, the Buenos Aires-based affiliate of Tango for Musicians at Reed College. Fain has presented concerts and master classes throughout the world and directs the Buenos Aires-based nonprofit arts organization Tango Sin Fin, which promotes Argentine music and music education locally and internationally. As a performer, she has toured widely with pianist Exequiel Mantega as the Duo Fain-Mantega, a group that explores the limits of the genre and has established a new role and sound for the flute in tango.
Sebastián Henríquez
Sebastián Henríquez is the author of The Guitar in Tango, part of the Método de Tango book series. Since 2010, he has been a teacher of guitar and Argentine music in the prestigious Conservatorio Superior de Música “Manuel de Falla,” and since 2013, in the Universidad Nacional de San Martín. He is a member of the award winning Quinteto Bataraz. As a solo guitarist, he took part in the Guitarras del mundo and La música interior festivals, and he has accompanied many singers and Argentine folk musicians. With some of them, he toured Europe, South America, and the United States.
Pablo Jaurena
Bandoneonist, arranger, composer, and director Pablo Jaurena is a professor of musical composition at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina). He is also a graduate from the Orquesta Escuela de Tango de Buenos Aires, directed by Emilio Balcarce and Nestor Marconi. He has studied privately with Julio Pane, Dino Saluzzi, Federico Pereiro, Rodolfo Mederos, and Hilda Herrera. He is the first bandoneón of the Orquesta Provincial de Música Ciudadana de Córdoba and has been featured several times as a guest conductor. He’s also a member of Orquesta El Arranque and the MJC Trio, with whom he has toured America and Europe and edited three albums, one of them featuring symphonic arrangements. He has played with artists such as Emilio Balcarce, Raúl Garello, Néstor Marconi, Atilio Stampone, Osvaldo Piro, Osvaldo Requena, Walter Ríos, Nicolás Ledesma, and César Salgán, among many others. As a bandoneonist, arranger, and director, he has recorded more than 50 albums. He has given masterclasses and conferences throughout Argentina, China, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Colombia, and Venezuela.
Morgan Luker
Morgan Luker is associate professor of music at Reed College and director of Tango for Musicians at Reed College. An ethnomusicologist, he holds a PhD from Columbia University. His research focuses on contemporary tango music in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is the author of The Tango Machine (University of Chicago Press, 2017), which explores how contemporary tango music is used as a resource for social and economic development in Argentina, drawing upon his extensive fieldwork with tango musicians, music industry figures, and cultural policymakers in Buenos Aires. His work on these topics has appeared in numerous academic journals, as well. He has also presented his work at conferences throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe. At Reed, Morgan teaches on a wide variety of topics in world music and culture.
Exequiel Mantega
A prolific composer and arranger, pianist Exequiel Mantega has published more than 70 works, including an original edition of Astor Piazzolla’s six tango etudes newly arranged for two flutes (available worldwide via the French publishing house Henry Lemoine). He has contributed to more than 12 recordings, including three albums with the Duo Fain-Mantega, and participated in more than 100 concerts and seminars about tango music in Europe and the United States, where his compositions and arrangements are performed by a wide variety of ensembles. Mantega founded and has directed the Young Composers Orchestra since 2012. Emerging from a workshop he directed on tango orchestration, the ensemble exclusively performs original compositions and arrangements produced by members of the group. Alongside Paulina Fain, he is co-founder of the Buenos Aires-based nonprofit arts organization Tango Sin Fin, which promotes Argentine music and music education locally and internationally.
Guillermo Rubino
Since 2009, Guillermo Rubino has been the first violin and string instruments instructor at the Orquesta Escuela Emilio Balcarce, the most prestigious tango orchestra program. He plays in the Diego Schissi Quinteto, for which he is one of the founding members, and he was first violin of the Orquesta El Arranque from 2005 to 2014. With these groups he recorded many albums and toured Europe and the United States extensively. He founded SurdelSur Ensamble, a string ensemble dedicated to performing original pieces by contemporary Argentine composers. As a classical violinist, Rubino plays at the Orquesta Estable del Teatro Argentino de La Plata, performing a wide repertoire of symphonic pieces, opera, and ballet.
Ignacio Varchausky
Bassist Ignacio Varchausky is the author of The Bass in Tango volume of the Método de Tango book series. He is the creator and artistic director of the Orquesta Escuela de Tango Emilio Balcarce, an innovative tango music education program that is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires. He is the founder of Orquesta El Arranque, one of the most prominent and successful tango ensembles of the current generation. With El Arranque, he has recorded seven critically acclaimed albums and toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He is the founder and artistic director of TangoVia Buenos Aires, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to tango education and preservation, including the Digital Tango Archive program. As artistic producer, Varchausky has produced over 30 albums with artists such as Leopoldo Federico, Horacio Salgán, Gustavo Beytelmann, Julio Pane, Nestor Marconi, Diego Schissi, Lidia Borda, and El Arranque. He has also served as the artistic director of numerous tango festivals around the world.
Juan Villarreal
Juan Villarreal is a singer, composer, teacher, and producer. Since 2010 he has been the singer for the famous and successful Orquesta El Arranque and the Duo Villarreal Crom, for which he is also a guitarist and composer. With these projects he has made countless tours and performed concerts in the most important venues and festivals around the world. Some of his compositions are performed by artists such as Nidia y su Banda (Argentina), El Muro Tango (Norway), Cruces del Plata (Argentina), Gavión (Spain). As a singing teacher, he has been developing his career in the private sector for more than 10 years. As an artistic producer, Villarreal participates in the project Tango en la Terraza and has been the musical and executive producer of the acclaimed documentary Amar Amando.