Latin Rhythms, a Piano Trio Celebration

Joaquín Turina was born December 1882 in Seville. He lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914 where he took composition lessons from Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum de Paris and studied the piano under Moritz Moszkowski. Like his countryman and friend, Manuel de Falla, while in Paris he familiarized himself with the impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, whose music had a profound influence on his compositional practice.

Along with Falla, he returned to Madrid in 1914, working as a composer, teacher and critic. On 28 March 1916, he joined the Madrid Symphony Orchestra at the Hotel Ritz of Madrid to perform the premiere of Falla's revised orchestral version of El amor brujo. In the early months of 1929, he visited Havana, Cuba, where he gave a series of seven lectures at the Hispanic-Cuban Institute of Culture

In 1931 he was made professor of composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. Among his notable pupils were Vicente Asencio and Celedonio Romero. He died in Madrid in 1949.

​

​

Astor Piazzolla was born in 1921 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, to Vicente "Nonino" Piazzolla and Asunta Manetti. His paternal grandfather, Pantaleo Piazzolla, had emigrated from Trani, Italy, while his mother was the daughter of Italian immigrants from Tuscany.

In 1925, Piazzolla's family moved to Greenwich Village, New York City, a tough neighborhood of the time. Despite his limp, Piazzolla adapted quickly and immersed himself in the rich musical environment at home, listening to tango, jazz, and classical music. He began playing the bandoneon in 1929 after his father bought one from a pawn shop.

The family relocated to Little Italy in 1930. Piazzolla composed his first tango, "La Catinga," in 1932 and studied music with Hungarian pianist Béla Wilda. In 1934, he met tango legend Carlos Gardel and appeared as a paper boy in Gardel's film El día que me quieras. Gardel invited Piazzolla to join his tour, but Piazzolla's father refused. This decision, though disappointing at the time, ultimately saved Piazzolla from the plane crash that killed Gardel and his orchestra in 1935. Piazzolla later joked that had he joined the tour, he would have played the harp instead of the bandoneon.

​

Villani-Côrtes was born in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, and began his musical journey at age 9, playing the cavaquinho, acoustic guitar, and piano. He graduated from the Brazilian Conservatory of Music in Rio de Janeiro in 1954 and later completed a law degree at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, where he premiered his Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in 1956.

After moving to São Paulo to study under José Kliass, Villani-Côrtes became a pupil of composer Camargo Guarnieri and worked as an arranger for advertising music. In 1978, he received an honorable mention from the Goethe-Institut for his Noneto. He won both first and second prizes in a 1986 contest organized by Editora Brasil Cultural and earned a master’s degree in composition in 1988 from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Villani-Côrtes taught composition and counterpoint at the State University of São Paulo and obtained his PhD in 1998. His work Postais Paulistanos earned him recognition from the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte, which awarded him seven accolades, including a lifetime achievement award, between 1990 and 2012.

Influenced by Shostakovich and French impressionists Ravel and Debussy, Villani-Côrtes prefers clarity and accessibility in his compositions over avant-garde experimentation. He is known for his prolific output, with over 300 works spanning solo instruments, chamber, and orchestral pieces.

​

​