Archive for the "Uncategorized" Category

Tango at Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival 2015

Late in July in torrential rain, some of Australia and Europe’s most celebrated classical musicians descended on North Stradbroke Island to begin rehearsals for an unusual and highly regarded Queensland music event, the Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival. Artistic Director and founder, violinist Rachel Smith is currently a violinist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Her festival draws […]

Tango at Orange Regional Conservatorium – February 2015

Last Saturday, February 28th 2015, I arrived in Orange to conduct a one day tango workshop at Orange Regional Conservatorium in central west NSW. My host, Music Director Donna Riles and her staff welcomed me and had prepared a program of rehearsals and a concert with Conservatorium students and members of the Orange Youth Orchestra (OYO). I […]

A history of tango and dance styles from Tango Reo

Tango is a dance that has influences from various forms of European and African culture. The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos and later Montevideo. The word “tango” seems to have first been used in connection with the dance in the 1890s. Initially it was just one of the many dances, but it soon became popular throughout society, […]

Le Grand Tango Concert this Friday November 7 at 7pm

Guillermo Rubino and Maggie Ferguson perform in Sydney

I am delighted to announce a special evening playing tango with Guillermo Rubino, my friend and co violinist on Tango Project Loca Bohemia and violinist with international show ‘Milonga‘ at Sydney Opera house next week from June 12th – 15th. Tango Synergy have kindly invited us to play on Wednesday 11th June at their regular […]

Tango Oz 2014 – An exciting debut

Every year since TangoOz  was formed in 2009, I look forward to sharing with incoming students the beauty and art of tango. From the first rehearsal the students begin to bond with each other. They add to their already substantial instrumental technical skills, tango specific conversational tools such as arrastre, sincope and percussion. The collaborative, chamber music […]

EARLY TANGO – WHY MEN HAD TO BE GOOD DANCERS

This is an interesting account of the earliest stages of tango by Christine Denniston “There were simply not enough women for all the men who might have wanted to settle down and have children to be able to do so. There were really only two practical ways for a man to get close to a […]