Juan Pablo Jofré, his next concert and a definition: “Here the composer should be free”

Innovative composer and bandoneonist, Juan Pablo Jofré has managed to transcend the milonga circuit through his compositions, positioning himself as one of the most interesting voices in chamber music that he takes tango as the main element of his work.

The bandoneonist will present his Double Concerto for violin and bandoneon with string orchestra, piano and percussion, with Gustavo Mulé on violin. Admission is free upon reservation. Jofré recorded this concert with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Since 2009 Jofré has lived in New York where he is making an interesting career as a composer and instrumentalist.

“Since I came to New York I was doing a job with ants; I’ve played all the milongas in Manhattan. I worked a lot in those places and slowly, when I could, I proposed one of my themes, sometimes they said no, but others said yes “, says Juan Pablo Jofre.

“I felt that my classmates liked being able to leave the repertoire of the classics to do some original songs and This is how I created a space as a composer. Since my beginnings, composition has been an inseparable element in my project; I’ve always composed. I embrace the bandoneon for Astor Piazzolla, but also for his brilliant compositional talent “, says the artist during the talk with Clarione.

The musician remembers aspects of that gradual process he experienced in New York. “My colleagues not only encouraged me to keep writing and showing the material, but they also suggested that I form a group to play it in small rooms. I stopped playing in the milongas after about 6 years, in 2015 “, says Yofré, who had already released one of his most important albums Hard tango (2013).

A bandoneon in New York

-How did you integrate into the New York music scene?

-It is very difficult to enter directly with your music; I entered playing the tango classics, a vast repertoire and professional management. In 2010 I was lucky enough to meet the Argentine pianist and composer Fernando Otero and to be part of his group; Those were very formative years.

I have not studied with Otero, but I have learned more than with many teachers. I spent four or five years in his group, we had a lot of work and a lot of rehearsals. He has always encouraged me to compose; for example, when a bandoneon solo came into his music, he told me to play what I wanted, he let me create.

At that time, Jofré recalled that the Russian-American violist Lev Zhurbin summoned him to give a concert in a New York theater with his compositions. “That was also an important moment in my career,” he added.

-How did you come to record Hard Tango, your first album, in New York?

-I experienced something very good with musicians in New York, there is a very interesting camaraderieit was in one of those meetings with musicians that I met Otero and, through him, I met Paquito D’Rivera, who ended up recording on my album Hard tango, in 2013. It was born as a proposal of the producer Gustavo Zsulansky who trusted me. Not only Paquito, but also Otero and Zhurbin.

It was a pleasure to record that album. There were also Nick Danielson on the violin and Pablo Aslán on the double bass. We all were. It got great reviews and allowed me to have more work and to be able to show my music. Festivals, participations with different orchestras, even music on request have come out.

-Have you mentioned commissioned music, is it perhaps the most difficult topic for the composer, to be able to access that world?

Yes, because you must already have demonstrated your approach as a composer, that they trust you and that your music is liked. In any case, in the United States, ordering music is a fairly common practice.

It doesn’t happen in Argentina, here the composer should be free. I remember when Esteban Benzecry received the Konex prize, he warned that, unfortunately, composers must leave the country; there are no composers who live off what they write in Argentina. Orchestras only have resources to rent music, not commissions.

The concert that will play at the CCK

-How did the proposal to compose the concert for violin and bandoneon with the Orpheus Orchestra come about?

The story of how I got to record with the Orpheus Chambers Orchestra, one of the best, is a curious one. I played with the French violinist Philippe Quint, who advised me to replace him during rehearsals with that orchestra. Rodolfo Medero.

Orpheus would play with Mederos in Colombia, but he couldn’t go to New York for rehearsals; then the orchestra hired me to play with them so they could get to know the music and sound of the bandoneon.

The repertoire was The four Seasons, by Piazzolla, arranged for bandoneon and string orchestra. I had a very good relationship and when I wrote to them to record the work that violinist Michael Guttman had commissioned me, a work for violin and bandoneon with orchestra, they immediately accepted.

musical honesty

Regarding the Double Concerto for violin and bandoneon with string orchestra, piano and percussion, he points out that he wrote it thinking, essentially, that he was being honest.

“It must make me feel some sensations, I want to feel with music. Write it with the heart and also, of course, with technical knowledge. I worked a lot on orchestration with Ezequiel Viñao, a professor at New York University. It was the first time I recorded with an orchestra of that level, it is a chamber orchestra of forty musicians ”, says the composer.

“It took me a year to compose the concert and I only used it in the milonga movement, a tune he had composed for a heavy metal band, in which he played the drums. I used that composite cell on the guitar, ”explains this bandoneonist, born in San Juan and who started studying classical double bass and piano.

At the age of 19 he took the bandoneon as his main instrument; he moves to Buenos Aires where he studies with the bandoneonist Julio Pane who underlines: “Jofré has been able to fill a void left by Astor”. In 2009 he settled in New York.

With the London Symphony

Then he would receive the order from the Chinese clarinetist Seunghee Lee, which he recorded with the London Symphony. After a concert at the Julliard School, Lee contacted him to commission a play that he finished writing in 2019.

“Here appears the English pianist Kathrine Stott, who plays with Yo-Yo Ma, whom I met at a meeting at Paquito D’Rivera’s house in New Jersey and who was the one who approached me at the London Symphony; She gave me the contact, I called and we decided to record, I couldn’t believe it! ”, Says the musician.

Due to the pandemic, the registration had to be canceled. “Fortunately at that time I had assignments that allowed me to work, because the situation was difficult. When it came time to record there was so much history with the tests and with the different bubbles that could not be broken. Luckily not the musician had symptoms and in two sessions of five hours each we recorded, ”says Jofré.

This work will be on the platforms in August.

“Both this concert and the one I recorded with OrpheuIt gave me the opportunity to expand my music, to innovate, I explored other harmonies, other colors and above all breaking shapes. They are pieces with an innovative tone, and a concert for violin and bandoneon is innovative “, concluded Jofré.

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