The title of this CD reflects the mission of the Colori Ensemble. To evade, the literal translation of the Latin evasio, is symbol to the ensemble’s wish to escape daily musical routine and to elude the beaten track. To throw new light on the existing, but also to create new sounds by playing new compositions by contemporary composers. To emphasize that these composers stand on the shoulders of illustrious predecessors, this CD is combining these new compositions with arrangements of well-known repertoire by composers whose works have withstood the test of time already.
The chosen compositions are fitted to the specific musical cast of the Colori Ensemble. The result can be compared to add subtle colouring to a black-and-white photograph, revealing details that might be overlooked, or in this case overheard, in the original. The four contemporary composers on this CD, all originating from or working in the Dutch province of Friesland, each in their own way stand on the shoulders of the great composers from the past: sometimes reminiscent, but at the same time looking toward a bright musical future. The musicians consider the posthumous contribution of the Frisian poet Tsjêbbe Hettinga as an inspiring gift. So it is no coincidence that this poet has the first and final word on this CD. Starting from distant shores (Frjemde Kusten), the Colori Ensemble depicts an imaginary and musical journey, escaping from (un)known places and presenting different views. Upon arrival (Oankomst) the cycle is completed by the poet’s welcoming words Kalispera file (greetings to you, my friend).
We’re thrilled to announce that the debut album from the Romo-Agri-Messiez Tango Trio has been nominated for best Tango Album of the year for the 2023 Latin Grammys.
Late last year we released “Ahora” featuring three of today’s best-known proponents of the Tango tradition, Pablo Agri, Horacio Romo and Emiliano Messiez. Today we received the News that this album has been nominated for “Best Tango Album” of the year at the coming edition of the Latin Grammys. Our congratulations to Emiliano, Pablo and Horacio, Luis Bacquã and the whole team involved with the production and release of this great album.
This recording presents a format that is somewhat unconventional in the tango world. The most famous setting for tango music is, of course, the “Orquestas Típicas” often including over a dozen performers however, smaller formats featuring four to six players are also popular. The typical trio format found in tango music consists of piano, bandoneon and double bass. Speaking about the line-up of this trio, pianist Emiliano Messiez said “It’s not that common to find a trio setting with piano, bandoneon and violin. When we first started to talk about this project, we were worried that the bass sound would be missing, however once we started playing, we realized that this is not really an issue.”
The album contains largely original compositions, written by each of the trio’s members. Pablo Agri explained further. “We each contributed two new compositions on the album, Horacio’s solo piece is a new composition and the rest of the material we recorded are arrangements of well-known pieces.” For Horacio, Pablo and Emiliano, the tango tradition is very important and the music on this album definitely reflects this. A quick read of the musicians’ biographies will show that all three have a long and distinguished history playing traditional tango music. However, this was not the idea behind this trio. Horacio Romo continued, “We didn’t want to be a ‘traditional’ trio just playing traditional tangos. We thought of this project as something different but at the same time we wanted to give due attention to the tradition. We decided that we would play original music – our music – creating a new sound, new music and a new trio”
That said, you will find two of the most traditional tangos of all time included on the album, both wrapped in new arrangements. Pablo brought in a new arrangement of “Por Una Cabeza” and “El Choclo”, one of the most famous tangos ever composed arranged by tango legend, Julian Plaza. Emiliano explained “We all like this song but we particularly love this arrangement, Horacio played in Julian’s orchestra many years, so he knows it very well.”
Pianist Emiliano Messiez, when speaking about how this project came about explained “When we decided to put this trio together, I had already been playing together with Horacio in the show “Forever Tango”. He also played with my own orchestra Tipica Messiez. We’d often play together as a duo, but he often suggested we ask Pablo and put together a trio. So, I guess it was actually his idea.” Prior to this, Emiliano had not met Pablo but coincidently he did know his father, Antonio. Antonio Agri was a neighbour of Emiliano’s family during his youth in Buenos Aires. A violinist himself, Antonio was very well known in the scene due mainly to his many years playing with Astor Piazzolla. “Antonio was our neighbour, in fact as a child I even took violin lessons from him.” explained Emiliano. He went on to say, “To be honest, I found the violin far too difficult and that’s when I decided to switch to piano. As a beautiful, and unforgettable gesture, Antonio gifted our family one of his violins, I have the instrument with me here in New York. Pablo got to see this violin, his Dad’s violin, 30 years later when we formally met.”
As mentioned above, the idea to found this trio stemmed from Horacio and Emiliano some time ago yet, the first time the three actually played together was in the summer of 2021 when the trio performed at the Philadelphia Piazzolla Festival. According to Meredith Klein, the Director of the Festival and the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School, this performance was an unforgettable experience for everyone who was there.
Fast forward twelve months and an opportunity developed to record the trio. Recording engineer Luis Bacqué from Bacqué Recording Studios in New Jersey had become aware of the trio and offered to produce this album. With this in place, Emiliano travelled back to Buenos Aires to work with Pablo and Horacio to prepare material for the album. In June 2022, almost exactly one year to the day of the trio’s first-ever performance, Pablo, Horacio and Emiliano entered the studio. The results are presented here on this Album.
ABOUT THE PLAYERS
PABLO AGRI
Grammy Award winning violinist, Pablo Agri brings a wealth of experience and recognition to Romo-Agri-Messiez Tango Trio. He comes to tango music naturally as the son of Antonio Agri, the violinist for Astor Piazzolla. Among his many accomplishments, he is the solo violinist on several Grammy Award-winning albums, such as the “Cigala Tango”, recorded with Diego El Cigala in 2011 and in 2018 he recorded “Bien Milonga” with the Orquesta Nicolas Ledesma. As the Director of the Camerata Argentina, a string orchestra performing Argentinean music, he has performed with the most important national artists; such as, Susana Rinaldi, Nestor Marconi, Amelita Baltar, Julián Plaza and many others.
Agri is also a highly in-demand soloist who has performed with many of the world’s most renowned orchestras and ensembles including performances with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia (Spain), Latvian Symphony Orchestra, and, he is a member of the mythical “Sexteto Mayor”.
HORACIO ROMO
Horacio Romo is a world-renowned bandoneon player. As a soloist, he has played Astor Piazzolla’s Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic (receiving an Emmy Award as Best Latin Concert), the London Philharmonic Orchestra to name a few.
Having performed with the most important Tango orchestras in Argentina, Romo is equally at home collaborating and performing with such diverse artists as Julio Iglesias, Lalo Schifrin and renowned tango singers, including Roberto Goyeneche, Alberto Castillo and Rubén Juárez. Romo has appeared on over 100 albums and participated in the documentaries “Café de los Maestros” and “Si sos brujo”. In addition, he is the music director and first bandoneon of Sexteto Mayor, the legendary orchestra with more than 45 years of trajectory and leads his own group, the Horacio Romo Sexteto.
EMILIANO MESSIEZ
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and based in New York City, pianist and composer Emiliano Messiez is one of the most in-demand tango pianists in the US. With a versatile and unique style, he is equally adept in classical music, jazz, tango, rock and Latin American Rhythms. He has performed worldwide including Lincoln Center and, he was the pianist for “Forever Tango” on Broadway, the West End in London and Puerto Rico.
A prolific composer, Messiez is often commissioned to write, arrange and orchestrate music. Recently, he wrote the music for “The Guava Tree” and “Casa Alfonsa” (both commissioned by Creede Repertory Theatre) and “Bordello,” a musical in development, written by Barbara Bellman. He is the founder and music director of his own orchestra Típica Messiez and several other groups including New York based group the Underground Tango Ensemble. This group recently released the album “El Charrúa”, a tribute to Messiez’s close and personal friend, legendary composer and master bandoneonist Raúl Jaurena.
Yael Acher “KAT” Modiano is an award-winningflutist, composer, and educator. She received her BA in Classical Flute Performing Arts from the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, where she also studied Jazz and Electronic Music Composition. She lived in Copenhagen and relocated to New York City in 2005 as Fulbright scholar, studying Composition at NYU, and MA in Music for Social Change, from Empire State College, NYC.
Yael currently lives in Copenhagen where she is active as a performer, composer in both the classical and jazz worlds. Yael’s performances and commissions span over Europe, Israel, Japan, USA and Canada. As a flutist & electro-acoustic composer, she works with different music genres: jazz, classical, contemporary, improvisation, electro/acoustic music for Silent films and choreography, free jazz, and tango. She leads “KAT” Modiano Group, and collaborates as soloist with ensembles, choirs, chorographers, visual artists, DJs, MC, poets and spoken word Artists.
Yael’s CD’s feature her original contemporary and jazz music, as well as classical pieces. Her releases include titles: Redcar, MODIANO, La Belle Ombre, “KAT”&”MOON” in Manna-hata, and ‘Humanity is like an ocean’ – Flute Soundscapes. Her current release “Nomad Imagination was released on Aliud Records in December 2022.
The Romo-Agri-Messiez tango tro features three of today’s best-known proponents of the style, Pablo Agri, Horacio Romo and Emiliano Messiez, is a trio recording presenting a format that is somewhat unconventional in the tango world.
Pianist Emiliano Messiez, when speaking about how this project came about explained “When we decided to put this trio together, I had already been playing together with Horacio in the show “Forever Tango”. He also played with my own orchestra Tipica Messiez. We’d often play together as a duo, but he often suggested we ask Pablo and put together a trio.” Prior to this, Emiliano had not met Pablo but coincidently he did know his father, Antonio. Antonio Agri was a neighbour of Emiliano’s family during his youth in Buenos Aires. A violinist himself, Antonio was very well known in the scene due mainly to his many years playing with Astor Piazzolla.
the first time the three actually played together was in the summer of 2021 when the trio performed at the Philadelphia Piazzolla Festival. Fast forward twelve months and an opportunity developed to record the trio. In June 2022, almost exactly one year to the day of the trio’s first-ever performance, Pablo, Horacio and Emiliano entered the studio. The results are presented here on their debut album Ahora.
ABOUT THE PLAYERS
PABLO AGRI
Grammy Award winning violinist, Pablo Agri brings a wealth of experience and recognition to Romo-Agri-Messiez Tango Trio. He comes to tango music naturally as the son of Antonio Agri, the violinist for Astor Piazzolla. Among his many accomplishments, he is the solo violinist on several Grammy Award-winning albums, such as the “Cigala Tango”, recorded with Diego El Cigala in 2011 and in 2018 he recorded “Bien Milonga” with the Orquesta Nicolas Ledesma. As the Director of the Camerata Argentina, a string orchestra performing Argentinean music, he has performed with the most important national artists; such as, Susana Rinaldi, Nestor Marconi, Amelita Baltar, Julián Plaza and many others.
Agri is also a highly in-demand soloist who has performed with many of the world’s most renowned orchestras and ensembles including performances with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia (Spain), Latvian Symphony Orchestra, and, he is a member of the mythical “Sexteto Mayor”.
HORACIO ROMO
Horacio Romo is a world-renowned bandoneon player. As a soloist, he has played Astor Piazzolla’s Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic (receiving an Emmy Award as Best Latin Concert), the London Philharmonic Orchestra to name a few.
Having performed with the most important Tango orchestras in Argentina, Romo is equally at home collaborating and performing with such diverse artists as Julio Iglesias, Lalo Schifrin and renowned tango singers, including Roberto Goyeneche, Alberto Castillo and Rubén Juárez. Romo has appeared on over 100 albums and participated in the documentaries “Café de los Maestros” and “Si sos brujo”. In addition, he is the music director and first bandoneon of Sexteto Mayor, the legendary orchestra with more than 45 years of trajectory and leads his own group, the Horacio Romo Sexteto.
EMILIANO MESSIEZ
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and based in New York City, pianist and composer Emiliano Messiez is one of the most in-demand tango pianists in the US. With a versatile and unique style, he is equally adept in classical music, jazz, tango, rock and Latin American Rhythms. He has performed worldwide including Lincoln Center and, he was the pianist for “Forever Tango” on Broadway, the West End in London and Puerto Rico.
A prolific composer, Messiez is often commissioned to write, arrange and orchestrate music. Recently, he wrote the music for “The Guava Tree” and “Casa Alfonsa” (both commissioned by Creede Repertory Theatre) and “Bordello,” a musical in development, written by Barbara Bellman. He is the founder and music director of his own orchestra Típica Messiez and several other groups including New York based group the Underground Tango Ensemble. This group recently released the album “El Charrúa”, a tribute to Messiez’s close and personal friend, legendary composer and master bandoneonist Raúl Jaurena.
We’re proud to announce the signing of pianist/composer Emiliano Messiez to Aliud Records. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and currently based in New York City, Emiliano is one of the most in-demand tango pianists in the US. With a versatile and unique style, he is equally adept in classical , jazz, tango, rock and Latin music.
Aliud Records director, Jos Boerland stated “Signing Emiliano fits perfectly with the labels expansion into the jazz and world music markets. With Emiliano on the roster we’re looking forward to collaborating on a number of projects over the next few years. Our focus is on building a solid relationship with artists that can work across genres and Emiliano fits this bill.”
The first album under this new contract will be released this coming autumn and will feature the debut album of a new tango trio featuring three of today’s best known proponents of the style, Pablo Agri, Horacio Romo and Emiliano Messiez. Titled “Ahora”, this trio album will feature a format that is somewhat unconventional in the tango world. The most famous setting for tango music is of course the “Orquestas Típicas” often including over a dozen performers however, smaller formats featuring four to six players are also popular. The typical trio format found in tango music consists of piano, bandoneon and double bass. Speaking about the line-up of this trio, pianist Emiliano Messiez said “It’s not that common to find a trio setting with piano, bandoneon and violin. When we first started to talk about this project we were worried that the bass sound would be missing, however once we started playing we realized that this is not really an issue.”
The album contains largely original compositions, written by each of the trio’s members. Pablo Agri explained further. “We each contributed two new compositions on the album, Horacio’s solo piece is a new composition and the rest of the material we recorded are arrangements of well-known pieces.” For Horacio, Pablo and Emiliano, the tango tradition is very important and the music on this album definitely reflects this. A quick read of the musicians’ biographies will show that all three have a long and distinguished history playing traditional tango music. However, this was not the idea behind this trio. Horacio Romo continued, “We didn’t want to be a ‘traditional’ trio just playing traditional tangos. We thought of this project as something different but at the same time we wanted to give due attention to the tradition. We decided that we would play original music – our music – creating a new sound, new music and a new trio”.
Ahora will be available on CD and be available for streaming and download in both stereo and immersive formats. More information and release dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
The love of nature and Sufi poetry are the threads running through the production of this CD. I’ve been looking for a way to connect these two themes to music for a long time.
At the age of thirteen, my first guitar teacher, Leo van Rutte, introduced me to the music of the composer Agustin Barrios. I found his music to be mesmerizingly beautiful and I was so inspired by this composer that at the time I was determined to devote my life to the classical guitar. Barrios was not only inspired by Western European romanticists, but also by indigenous music, nature, and religion. His composition Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios (An Alm for the Love of God) is a clear example of this.
In Sufism, the rose represents ultimate beauty and refers to opening the heart to the “One” or “Essence”. The text below is a stanza from one of Rumi’s many poems:
“What was said to the Rose
that made it open,
was said to me
here in my chest”.
In this regard, The Rose in the Garden by Carlo Domeniconi is of special significance to me. It is my hope that the music on this CD will bring some comfort, stillness, and joy in our turbulent world today.
Rob Nijboer studied guitar with Willem van Lier at the Conservatory of Groningen.
In 1993, he obtained his degree as a teaching and performing artist, as well as a grant that allowed him to continue his studies with John Mills in London. Since then, he has participated in master classes with John Williams, Roberto Aussel, and Pavel Steidl.
The original idea for this fifth clarinet competition was that it would be part of the “Van Eyck project 2020 – 2021”. Everyone knows why this has been delayed by a year. For this competition, three composers were asked to write a new work inspired by the characteristic painting by Jan Van Eyck, “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”. The composers Alain Crepin (Lam Gods Impressions), Johan Duijck (L’Homme désarmé) and Dirk Brossé (The Secret of the Mystic Lamb) have succeeded in this in a very special way. The International Clarinet Competition Ghent has now been organized for the fifth time. It has now grown into a special and highly appreciated competition that, due to its great and quickly built up success, has attracted registrations from more than 200 candidates from 5 continents. Of these, 65 clarinetists were selected to participate. On this album you can listen to the three finalists and enjoy their exceptional playing. Accompanied by the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Zemlinsky Quartet, Johan Duijck (piano) and soprano Franches Dhont, they will take you into the atmosphere of the competition!
The first three price winners Arthur Stockel (1st prize), Ángel Martín (2nd prize) and Szymon Emil Parulski (3rd prize) gave the best they have. Accompanied by the Flanders Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dirk Brossé you can listen to the finals on this disc in stereo and Auro 3D Immersive Sound.
CD 1
Arthur Stockel
1. The Secret of the Mystic Lamb – Dirk Brossé 13:34
Arthur Stockel
Concerto no. 2 – Carl Maria von Weber
2. Allegro 08:23
3. Adagio ma non troppo 07:08
4. Rondo allegretto 06:19
Szymon Emil Parulski
Concerto no. 1 – Carl Maria von Weber
5. Allegro moderato 07:59
6. Adagio ma non troppo 06:01
7. Rondo allegretto 06:03
CD 2
Angel Martin Mora
1. L’Homme Désarmé – Johan Duijck 10:57
Angel Martin Mora
Clarinet quintet K581 in A major – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Allegro 06:28
3. Larghetto 05:48
4. Menuetto – Trio I – Trio II 05:33
5. Allegretto con variazioni 08:40
Minkyung Chu
Clarinet Quintet in b-minor op. 115 – Johannes Brahms
6. Allegro 09:52
7. Adagio 10:50
8. Andantino 04:36
9. Con Moto 08:41