Martin Alvarado - Así Es Mi Tango

Event information

For Martín Alvarado, widely regarded as Argentina's finest and most significant tango singer, tango music has always been a "living language" with contemporary relevance rather than a genre rooted in a particular period of history.

However Argentina's turbulent political past has affected its musical evolution and in this concert Martín will be outlining a little of his country's musical history and paying homage to some of its chief protagonists, some of whom were jailed or exiled when tango and some of Argentina's artists and musicians became seen a threat to the state.

What emerged from this period was a new style of tango - tango nuevo - and some of Martín's highly acclaimed repertoire includes rarely heard songs by tango nuevo's creator in chief, Astor Piazzolla.

In taking this music forward, Martín has been called the "Voice of Tango in the 21st Century" and is among the main artists in this genre committed to taking tango as an artform into the future, often including new songs in his repertoire.

Looking at this genre in a wider geographical context, tango had a resurgance in the 1980s, and is now very much a global phenomenom but there are a number of other countries in the world, apart from those around South America's Rio Plata region of tango's birth, that have their own tango tradition. Among them is Finland from where Mikko Helenius, who will be joining Martin on piano and bandoneón, hails. The result is an enchanting mix of the tango diaspora.

Helenius, a classically trained musician and composer from Helsinki, blends his unique and improvisational musicianship with Martín's mesmerising tenor voice and romantic and charismatic Argentinian style. Radio 3's Max Reinhardt described their performance as "a tango epiphany" in 2013 when Martín won the Latin UK Award for Concert by International Artist of the Year.

"Completely beguiling tenor" BBC Radio 3

"Stunning vocals ... pure class!" Nottingham Post

"A genuine tanguero and well worth a listen" Songlines

"Glorious ... a masterclass in vocal expression" Derby Telegraph