ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Leonardo Suarez Paz
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Leonardo Suarez Paz is known for his uncommon talent as a singer, a career he began at the age of 6, a tango dancer and choreographer and an artist who “possesses a unique spirit and is a virtuoso extraordinaire on the violin” (Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York). Leonardo made his debut as a violinist at age 14, gaining experience as a classical and tango musician. At 16, he became the youngest member of the Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón Opera House in Buenos Aires. As a classical musician he recorded with Placido Domingo, accompanied Alfredo Kraus, Aaron Rosand, was a soloist for Julio Boca’s Ballet Argentino and concertmaster and soloist for Savion Glover’s Classical Savion. He was featured on the GRAMMY-award winning albums 100 Años de Mariachi with Placido Domingo, Tango, with Carlos Franzetti and Ruben Blades, Amarte Es Un Placer with Luis Miguel and performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Spoleto and Umbria Jazz Festivals in Italy and others. His Jazz credits include working with Stanley Jordan, Cody Moffett, Steve Kuhn and Jim Hall. Leonardo Suarez Paz premiered his Tango Violin Concerto, Nuevos Aires, in New York in 2016. He arranges and composes for soloists, chamber groups and orchestras including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.
Leonardo is a 4th generation Tango artist, billed by the press as "Tango Royalty" (All About Jazz, UK./ Erie-Times News). He grew up along side and was mentored by composer Astor Piazzolla, his parents - violinist Fernando Suarez Paz, who was Piazzolla's collaborator for over a decade, singer Beatriz Suarez Paz and Horacio Ferrer, who was Piazzolla's lyricist and the co-creator of Nuevo Tango. Leonardo Suarez Paz and has worked as a soloist with most of Tango’s legendary figures including Mariano Mores, Horacio Salgan, Atilio Stampone, Osvaldo Berlingieri, Nestor Marconi, Horacio Ferrer, Federico Scorticatti, Tanya, Osvaldo Requena and many others and was featured as a dancer and violin soloist in the iconic shows of Tangox2, Perfumes de Tango and The Mariano Mores Show. Leonardo was the only violin soloist to be featured in both Broadway tango productions of Tango Argentino and Forever Tango. He was featured in "Troilo de los 40" and Cafe de Los Maestros. He brings forth a new vision of Argentina's rich genre and is "surely now the torchbearer of Argentine Tango and the legacy of its greatest composer, Astor Piazzolla" (D. Heining, All About Jazz).
His numerous projects and his productions have appeared from the Teatro Colon Opera House, Teatro Alvear and CCK in Buenos Aires as well as the Buenos Aires Tango Festival to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the Latin GRAMMY Awards live, following a double Latin GRAMMY Award nomination in 2012 for his album Masters of Bandoneon, on which he is featured as composer, arranger and violinist. He has released recordings on the EMI label, Azica/Naxos with his projects. The sound of his violin can be heard on numerous film tracks including Flawless with Robert De Niro, Bossa Nova, The Imposters, Circo De Arrabal and many others. Leonardo Suarez Paz is an educator and lecturer and is an Official Ambassador of the the Academia Nacional del Tango in Buenos Aires.
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