•V •>.

74TH SEASON 

OF CONCERTS

OCTOBER 4, 2015 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
PROGRAM

3:30 • West Building, West Garden Court

Pablo Ziegler Quartet for New Tango

Pablo Ziegler, piano

Hector del Curto, bandoneon

Jisoo Ok, cello

Pedro Giraudo, bass

The program will be announced from the stage.

74th Season * 3
The Musicians

Pablo Ziegler

For decades, Buenos Aires-born, pianist, composer, and arranger Pablo Ziegler has been

one of the most important figures in Argentine New Tango, the vibrant musical hybrid of 

classical tango and American jazz. Mark Swed of The Los Angeles Times writes, "He is cool,

understated, and makes everything look easy and natural.... Just as a really suave tango

dancer seems not to move with feet but on wheels, Ziegler skates the keyboard."

After performing in Astor Piazzolla's legendary quintet for over a decade, and appearing on iconic Piazzolla recordings, including Tango: Zero Hour, La Camorra, and Central Park

Concert, Ziegler has led his own groups for more than twenty years, refining and reimagining

the bounds of the tango tradition. Touring throughout the world with his trio, quartet, and

quintet, recent seasons have seen Ziegler performing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the 

Chautauqua Institution, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and the Laguna Beach Music Festival.

He has been featured as guest soloist with major orchestras around the world, playing his own 

compositions as well as the music of Piazzolla with the Presidential Orchestra of Turkey, the

Tokyo Chamber Orchestra, and Symphonic Jazz Orchestra of Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Ziegler's most recent and critically acclaimed recording, Amsterdam Meets New Tango

(2013), sees his quartet paired with the Netherlands' Metropole Orkest. In 2011, Ziegler's

work as music director, arranger, and pianist for bass-baritone opera star Erwin Schrott

earned an ECHO Klassik Award for the album Rojotango. Ziegler's 2005 release, Bajo Cero,

won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Tango Album, and in 2008, his album Buenos Aires

Report made the final list of nominees for the same honor.

Hector del Curto

Praised by the New York Times as a "splendid player," Argentinean bandoneonist Hector

del Curto's career, spanning more than twenty-five years, has encompassed the traditional

tango, new tango, jazz, classical, and world music. He has performed with the world-renowned

tango composer Astor Piazzolla, pianist Pablo Ziegler, clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, saxophonist 

Joe Lovano, and violinist Cho-Liang Lin, as well as with the Metropolitan Opera, National

Symphony, Orpheus Chamber, and Buenos Aires orchestras, to name a few.

Born into a family of bandoneon players, Del Curto was introduced to the world of

tango and bandoneon by his grandfather. By the age of seventeen, he had won Argentina's

"Best Bandoneon Player Under 25" award and was invited to join the orchestra of the

legendary Osvaldo Pugliese, the "Last Giant of Tango.''

4 • National Gallery of Art

In 1999, Del Curto received the Golden Note Award from the Italian-American

Network in recognition of his artistic achievements. As conductor, he directed the spectacular show Forever Tango on Broadway and founded the Eternal Tango Orchestra, a tenpiece ensemble. He recently produced and released his second album Eternal Piazzolla

with a sold-out concert at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City. His first recording Eternal

Tango was featured on BBC News and Public Radio International's The World. He also

appears in numerous recordings with artists such as Osvaldo Pugliese, Astor Piazzolla,

Pablo Ziegler, Paquito D'Rivera, Denyce Graves, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Elvis Costello,

The Manhattan Transfer, Shakira, and Placido Domingo.

Del Curto is the founding artistic director of Stowe Tango Music Festival, the premier

tango music festival in the United States. Every August, the festival brings together worldclass artists and talented students to present a unique series of performances throughout

the Stowe, Vermont, region.

Jisoo Ok

Cellist Jisoo Ok is a multifaceted musician who has distinguished herself as an interpreter of

classical, tango, jazz, and contemporary music. She has closely collaborated with eminent

musicians such as pianist Pablo Ziegler, bandoneonist Hector del Curto, and clarinetist,

Paquito D'Rivera, and performed with jazz violinist Regina Carter, bassist Ron Carter, and

vibraphonist Stefon Harris.

Ok has performed worldwide in venues and festivals, including the Lincoln Center,

Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Birdland, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Laguna Beach

Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Miami

International Piano Festival, Concerti di Mezzogiorno at the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi,

in Italy, Copa Fest in Brazil, Houston International Festival, and SummerStage at Central

Park, among others.

She has released two critically acclaimed albums, Eternal Tango and Eternal Piazzolla,

which she coproduced with her husband, Hector del Curto, and Rojotango with Erwin Schrott, 

released in 2011 on Sony Classical. She appears as a guest artist on several albums: Horizon:

Piano and Chamber Works by Gareth Farr, with pianist Henry Wong Doe, Django Festival

Allstars, with Dorado Schmitt, and Introducing Letizia Gambi, with Lenny White, Chick Corea,

Ron Carter, Gil Goldstein, and Patrice Rushen. Ok is also the founding executive director

of Stowe Tango Music Festival.

Born in Seoul, Korea, but raised in New Zealand, Ok began cello studies at age eleven

to avoid studying violin. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard

School, where she studied cello with Bonnie Hampton and Fred Sherry, and also chamber

music with Itzhak Perlman and Robert Mann.

74th Season * 5
Pedro Giraudo

Originally from Cordoba, Argentina, Pedro Giraudo moved to New York City in 1996. Since 

then, he has become a highly versatile bassist, composer, and arranger, performing in a wide

variety of musical projects, both his own award-winning Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra and

as a member of several prominent ensembles, ranging from tango to jazz.

Giraudo has collaborated with Paquito D'Rivera, Latin American icon Ruben Blades, 

Grammy award-winner Pablo Ziegler, and Dizzy Gillespie's protege William Cepeda. He has

participated in numerous jazz and music festivals throughout North America, Europe, Latin

America, the Caribbean, and Asia, and performed in venues such as the Blue Note (Japan

and the United States), Austria's Birdland, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Jazz Royale 

Festival in Thailand, the Kennedy Center, and in New York: Iridium, Jazz Standard, Lincoln

Center, and Carnegie Hall.

As a composer and arranger, Giraudo leads his thirteen-piece ensemble, the Pedro 

Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, and has been hailed by critics as one of the most creative and

daring bandleaders on the scene today. The group, which includes some of New York's

finest jazz musicians, has performed regularly in the most prestigious jazz clubs in the

New York City area, as well as abroad. John Murph of DownBeat described Giraudo's

music as "an opulent listening experience of modern, orchestral jazz, brimming with

passionate improvisations, deliberate contrapuntal melodies, and plush harmonies."

In 2008, Giraudo was awarded a composer's commission through the Jazz Gallery

in New York. The resulting suite was the centerpiece of his 2011 album. In 2010, he was

commissioned by the JazzReach initiative to compose a new work for their Big Drum/Small

World main-stage program. Giraudo has played bass on dozens of recordings for the

world's leading labels, as well as for independent projects, including Oliver Stone's Wall

Street II. He is the principal bassist of the Hudson Symphony Orchestra.

6 * National Gallery of Art

The Seventy-Fourth Season of General Information

The William Nelson Cromwell and

F. Lammot Belin Upcoming Concerts

Hermes String Quartet

Music by Mozart, Schubert, and Webern

October 11, Sunday, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Poulenc Trio

Music by Copland, Prokofiev,

Stravinsky, and Weinberg

October 18, Sunday, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Nordic Weekend Celebrating

150th Birthdays of Jean Sibelius

and Carl Nielsen

National Gallery of Art String Quartet

October 23, Friday, 12:00

West Building, West Garden Court

National Gallery of Art Piano Trio

October 24, Saturday, 12:00

West Building, West Garden Court

National Gallery of Art Orchestra

Peter Wilson, guest conductor

October 25, Sunday, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Music by Sibelius and Nielson

Admission to the National Gallery of Art

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic

devices are turned off.

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to the

National Gallery of Art through The Circle.

Reserved seating is available in recognition

of their support. Please contact the

development office at (202) 842-6450 or

circle@nga.gov for more information.

www.nga.gov

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The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2075 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery ofArt, Washington.

Cover Jacques Villon, Spanish Dancer (Danseuse

Espagnole) (detail), 1899, National Gallery of

Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs.

Paul Mellon. Back cover West Building, East

Garden Court, National Gallery of Art, Gallery

Archives © Dennis Brack/Black Star