The Quinteto Emedea began back in 2015. It is the result of the collaboration of five passionate musicians who share a common ambition: to rediscover and explore the music of the great Astor Piazzolla.

 

A man of extremes, an insatiable creator, Astor Piazzolla was at the origin of a Revolution by creating the "Tango Nuevo", profoundly renewing the genre and Creating a new music, at the crossroads between Tango, jazz and classical music.

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Considered a musical milestone, the immense body of work of the master of Tango Nuevo, is often unexplored and circumscribed to just a few commonplace standards. Emedea strives to give a new life to the little-known corners of his works, the rarely interpreted repertoire, the hidden gems. Taking as a starting point the repertoire of two different periods of the emblematic "Quinteto Nuevo Tango" (1960-73, 1979-89), Emedea took upon the task to reconstruct the arrangements in their original writing and orchestration form, for which in most cases the sole remains were the studio recordings.

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The quintet undertakes the interpretation of Piazzolla's music to convey all its richness: the elegance of his writing as much as his more primal traits, the novelty of his musical language and its traditional dimension, his aspiration to erudite music and the deep-rooted tradition of Argentine music.

Modernísimo

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The Album Modernísimo (2019, Contratiempo/UVMdistribution) offers a new approach to the modernity of Astor Piazzolla, reflected by a wide array of arrangements and compositions rarely played or recorded since the original versions. All the pieces are the result of our transcriptions, the scores of this repertoire having never been published.

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Modernísimo presents 14 finely selected titles: The first emblematic compositions; Dazzling pieces, with Jazz or classical music tones; Great arrangements of Tango standards; Monumental themes, among the composer's most avant-garde ones; Unpublished pages, never recorded.

 

The Musicians

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The members of Emedea are all specialists in Performance Practice and are graduates of the most acclaimed Music Conservatories in Europe, namely the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris, Trinity College of Music, Codarts (conservatoire) of Rotterdam. They are part of the new generation of tango musicians who perpetuate the genre in its more traditional forms.

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Their activities led them to perform in the great halls of Europe and in Argentina (Auditorium de Radio France, Auditorium de l'Orchestre National de Lyon, Elbphilarmonie Hambourg, Théâtre du Châtelet, La Cigale Paris, Usina del Arte Buenos Aires, Teatro San Martin Buenos Aires… ), and to collaborate with the most important figures of tango: Juan-José Mosalini, Gustavo Beytelmann, William Sabatier, Ramiro Gallo, Victor Villena, Roger Helou, just to name a few.

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Transmission

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Concerned about transmission, the quintet also performs in other concert forms such as concerts-presentation or concert-reading, in order transmit keys of music and historical understanding to the public. The Quinteto develops its activities aimed at the young public, through interventions and Master-Classes in schools and conservatories.

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Since 2015, the Quinteto Emedea offers a repertoire of "chamber Tango", combining spontaneity of improvisation with precision of interpretation. Addressing both a novice audience and a well-informed listener, the program invites the audience to (re)discover the Astor Piazzolla’s music through an unusual listening angle and content.