Austin Chamber Music Center hosts return of Grammy winner Raul Jaurena

By Rob Faubion, Austin On Stage

Austin Chamber Music Center welcomes 2012 with a sultry concert featuring Grammy Award-winning bandoneon player Raul Juarena - joined by pianist Michelle Schumann - for a program featuring works by Argentina's most celebrated tango composers. 

The "Two to Tango" concert event will play Sat., Jan. 21 at the First Unitarian Church.

The concert performance marks Jaurena's third collaboration with the Austin Chamber Music Center.  His sold-out concerts continued to excite Austin chamber music fans since he opened the Center's summer chamber music festival in 2009, and his Jan. 20 concert has already sold out.

For Jaurena, the tango is more than Argentine dance music - but rather a treasured art form. Raised in Uruguay, his father taught him to play the bandoneon as soon as he was big enough to hold the instrument.  By age eight, he had joined a tango orchestra and began to travel the world.

As both a composer and active performer, Jaurena continues to reinvent the tango by fusing it with other musical styles - melding the traditional tango with vibrant improvisations and elements of American jazz. 

His past collaborations with Paquito D'Rivera, Yo Yo Ma, Giora Freidman and major orchestras around the world have helped the tango become an international art form.  The Austin concert will include works by Piazzolla, Damario, Mores, Salgan, Plaza and Melo - all arranged by Jaurena.

Tickets to the Jan. 21 concert are $25 for general admission.  The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

The First Unitarian Church is located at 4700 Grover Avenue.  For tickets and more information, call 512-454-0026 or visit AustinChamberMusic.org.

(Photo courtesy ACMC)
Austin Chamber Music Center hosts return of Grammy winner Raul Jaurena