Astor Bandoneon Biography

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born on March 11, 1921. When Astor was 8 years old, his father gave him his first bandoneon, which he had bought at a pawn shop for 19 dollars. Astor had the privilege of studying the bandoneon for one year with Andrés DÁquila, and soon after made his first record. The name of that first record was Marionette Spagnol. At age 12, Astor went to study with pianist Bela Wilda, disciple of Rachmaninov, with whom he “learned to love Bach”. It was shortly after that he met Carlos Gardel, who gave Astor a part in the film, “El Día que me quieras”, a film which formed a large part of the history of the Tango.

At age 15, Astor returned to Argentina with his family, and began playing in some small tango orchestras. Upon hearing the alternative way of playing the tango by means of the radio, played by a man named Elvino Vardaro, Astor mustered up the courage to move to Buenos Aires and pursue his passion at age 17. At age 18, Astor became a member of the Anibal Troilo orchestra, which was considered one of the greatest tango orchestras of the time. He went on to do musical studies with Albert Ginastera as well as Raúl Spivak.
In 1943 he began his “classical” works with the “Suite para Cuerdas y Arpas”, and a year later left Troilo’s orchestra to lead the orchestra which accompanied singer Francisco Fiorentino, he played with Firoentino for three years, when he formed his first orchestra, which unfortunately is later dissolved in 1949. He continued composing many tango pieces throughout the next couple of years, although at age 28 decided that he wanted to leave the bandoneon and completely dedicate himself to his musical studies. From 1950 to 1954, Piazzolla composed at least six musical works, which better defined his personal and unique