By Margaret Adams
Washington D.C.-based bandoneonist Heyni Solera has released her album “Bach en Bandoneón” in collaboration with her colleague, Rodrigo Avalos. The musicians’ first album features expert arrangements of classics from Bach’s wide range of iconic pieces, as well as original compositions that honor Bach.
While Solera began playing piano at four years old, the musician did not intend for music to become her career: “I always intended to be in medicine, after finishing my degree in nurse anesthesia ten years ago I felt I needed something more.” After discovering her love for the bandoneon, as well as realizing the renaissance of tango in Buenos Aires, she decided to get her degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland. There, she has developed the lectures such as A GPS for Tango Listening: What Makes Tango a Tango? and Today’s Woman in Tango: Carving Out Spaces.
“Bach en Bandoneón” is a testament to Solera and Avalos’s commitment to lifting the barriers of music education. The musicians have created their album in hopes of better establishing and growing the pedagogy of the instrument; they also plan to post their arrangements of Bach and compositions in honor of Bach online for free for anyone to study.
“The bandoneon, unlike other instruments, does not have a long history of systemized pedagogy,” wrote Solera. “Most bandoneon players would learn what their teachers would teach them and oftentimes would be random. The new generation wants to promote the education of the bandoneon by providing a more organized way of learning. Most professional bandoneon players study Bach, because it promotes learning the complicated keyboard system and teaches good technique.”
Solera is currently working with other projects, such as performing with Solidaridad Tango Orchestra, an all-female tango orchestra.
Check out Heyni Solera and Rodrigo Avalos’s new album, “Bach en Bandoneón,” available on your favorite streaming platform. Listen to this and other great music on the Alchemical Records Multigenre Mixture on Spotify.
Margaret Adams is a Psychology major and Rhetoric and Writing minor at The Catholic University of America from New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition to her work with Alchemical, she writes for CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, and has recently been named Quill Editor. She enjoys reading, writing, and looking at pictures of her dog, Bella.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
