Leonardo Suarez Paz Brings Multi-Disciplinary Show to NYU Skirball

Following a sold-out performance at the famed "Ballena Azul," CCK in Buenos Aires, the multifaceted "virtuoso extraordinaire," (Wynton Marsalis), Leonardo Suarez Paz, brings his genre-redefining, multidisciplinary performance to NYU Skirball, sharing his unique vision of the genre across a century of immigrant struggles and triumphs. Leonardo honors his mentor, Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine born and New York raised composer by recreating Nuevo Tango as an evolving, daring, artistically complex, and emotionally moving art form.

The 16-member cast features Nuevo Tango Ensemble with soloists Leonardo Suarez Paz (violin, voice, dance), Patience Higgins (tenor sax), Nuevo Tango Ballet under the direction of Olga Suarez Paz and Laura Roatta, includes a special visual art feature of works by Dedé Wolff and Lulú Michelli de Ferrer, the wives of Piazzolla and Ferrer, respectively, and rare footage of Piazzolla in New York.

NYU Skirball located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is one of New York City's major presenters of international work, and has been the premier venue for cultural and performing arts events in lower Manhattan since 2003. The 860-seat state-of-the art theater, led by Director Jay Wegman, provides a home for internationally renowned artists, innovators and thinkers. NYU Skirball hosts over 300 events annually, from re-inventions of the classics to cutting-edge premieres, in genres ranging from dance, theater and performance art to comedy, music and film.

More About the Project: Leonardo Suarez Paz's PIAZZOLLA 100 celebrates creative liberty and the invaluable contribution of immigrants and women to society, starting with our namesake whose centennial we celebrate. Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine born and New York raised composer mentored Leonardo Suarez Paz, who now leads this cross-cultural, interdisciplinary project in order to demonstrate how the desires, values and artistic influences of immigrants in conjunction with local cultures continue to fuel the evolution of Nuevo Tango and enrich our society. The project recreates Tango as an elevated, contemporary and relevant art form, infusing it with modern choreographic elements and influences from classical, jazz, and popular music.

About Leonardo Suarez Paz, Artistic Director:

Artistic Director and "virtuoso extraordinaire," Leonardo Suarez Paz, creates across cultures and genres, continuing a family legacy of over 100 years in the genre, beginning with Gabino Ezeiza to Fernando Suarez Paz who was instrumental in creating the Nuevo Tango alongside Piazzolla. Leonardo is a star of multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy Awarded albums (Cuartetango, Placido Domingo, Ruben Blades, Luis Miguel), who was born into a cradle of tango and grew up among its stars during the military dictatorship in Argentina. He witnessed the tango revolution first hand - his mentors and family friends - Astor Piazzolla, Horacio Ferrer and his father, Fernando Suarez Paz passed along to him their vision and their dreams.

His journey took him from his artistic debut at the age of 6 as a singer, to becoming the youngest member of the Teatro Colon Opera House at age 16 as a violinist, to plying as a soloist and dancing with all of the major tango stars such as Mariano Mores, Horacio Salgan, Atilio Stampone to playing jazz with Jim Hall, Kenny Drew Jr., Stanley Jordan, Steve Kuhn and Savion Glover, to arranging for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. He embodies all that is part of this complex genre today, inspired by everything that surrounded him since childhood, he is the music, the song, the poetry and the dance of Buenos Aires, the rhythms of Tango's roots, and the modern harmonies of Tango's revolution, the past in his heart and one foot always in the future, he is Leonardo Suarez Paz - EL NUEVO TANGO.

16 artists including an 11-member Nuevo Tango Ensemble, Nuevo Tango Ballet & multimedia

Nuevo Tango Ensemble - Leonardo Suarez Paz - (direction, violin soloist, vocalist & choreographer), Patience Higgins - tenor saxophone soloist, members of Latin Grammy-nominated Cuaretango string quartet - Sami Merdinian (violin I), Francisco Salazar (violin II), Jon Weber (viola), Leo Grinhauz (cello), Rodolfo Zanetti (bandoneon), Ahmed Alom (piano), Emilio Teubal (keyboard), Konrad Adderley (contrabass), Matt Vander Ende (drums). Nuevo Tango Ballet - Olga Suarez Paz, Leonardo Suarez Paz, Laura Roatta (ACE Award) - direction & choreography. Francesca Antonacci, Caitlyn Casson, Mathilde Guerrero, Brianna Rivera - dancers.

Special visual arts & film feature includes works by two female artists who had significant influence on the genre, the painter Dedé Wolff, who was the wife of Astor Piazzolla and Lulú Michelli de Ferrer, surrealist painter, illustrator and wife of the late poet Horacio Ferrer, Piazzolla's lyricist and co- creator of the Nuevo Tango. The show also includes rare footage of Piazzolla in a bilingual format (English/Spanish).

Choreography - Olga Suarez Paz, Laura Roatta, Leonardo Suarez Paz
Visual Art - Lulú Michelli de Ferrer, Dedé Wolff, Pedro Figari (courtesy of Lulu Michelli y Daniel Piazzolla) Technical Direction - Nate Terracio Lighting Design - Fabian Molina Candela Costume Design - Olga Suarez Paz, Laura Roatta, Melanie Gomez.

El Nuevo Tango is set for May 14th, 2022 at 7:30pm at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Pl, New York, NY 10012. Tickets can be purchased at https://tickets.nyu.edu/piazzolla.

Photo Credits: Manuel Pose Varela.