Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet brings Argentinian nostalgia, sounds to Hendricks Chapel
Audience members enjoyed authentic Argentinian music from the Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet. Organizers of the Malmgren Concert Series plan to host concerts like this at least four times each semester. Eli Schwartz | Contributing Photographer
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Traditional Argentinian tango music filled Hendricks Chapel from top to bottom as the Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet played bass, violin, piano and bandoneon.
“It’s what keeps my inner child alive and it’s a beautiful thing that I enjoy a lot,” Sami Merdinian, band member and violinist, said. “I love sharing it with people.”
Latin GRAMMY-winner Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet performed at Hendricks Chapel on Sunday, kicking off the Malmgren Concert Series at Syracuse University this school year.
Pedro Giraudo leads the quartet alongside three other people, including SU assistant professor and pianist Jun Cho, bandoneon player Shinjoo Cho and Merdinian. Giraudo and Merdinian share a similar background, but the origin of their group was coincidental, Merdinian said.
They come from the same city in Argentina, but didn’t cross paths until Giraudo and Merdinian were both in New York City when tango music brought them together.
When bassist and composer Giraudo was a child, he played violin, but soon gave it up. He reconnected with music when he was 17 and went on to study jazz in NYC, eventually leading him to grow an affinity for tango.
“Being from Argentina, eventually I started getting calls to play tango so I kind of connected with the music of what this genre is and fell in love with it,” Giraudo said.
Cho connected with Giraudo four or five years ago, and the rest was history. Cho always had an admiration for tango, and a friend put him in touch with Giraudo, who was looking for a pianist.
The concerts have brought in a positive response from the wider community of Syracuse, Associate Professor of Organ and SU’s Organist Dr. Anne Laver said. Dr. Laver recalled a time last April when a bus from a local senior living center brought in about 30 people to enjoy a choral concert.
“The concerts really bring people together,” Dr. Laver said. “I look around and the audience is multi-generational. It’s diverse.”
The quartet said its performances have not only had an impact on the audience, but on themselves as well. Tango is a very personal genre that allows you to be completely yourself, Merdinian said.
“The music is all about passion and nostalgia, so as a performer you connect to it very easily, making it easy for the audience too as well,” Merdinian said.
The quartet has played its music for a wide variety of listeners, from clubs to universities, and Syracuse is no different, Merdinian said. This time, the band stayed in Syracuse for a few days before performing. Merdinian said this helped the band feel more connected with the community they were performing for.
Giraudo said that everybody, despite age or background, can get something out of the same concert.
“At the bottom of it, I think music is a really magical, very unique language. And communicating that is the main goal,” Giraudo said.
Some attendees of the performance agreed there was a strong connection between the performers and the audience. Audience members Jorge Davidenko and Paula Pons, who are native Argentinians and current Syracuse residents, thoroughly enjoyed the music.
Pons and Davidenko were astounded by the chapel itself and the way the performers were able to fill the space. Davidenko said that when he closed his eyes, it felt like the sound came from everywhere.
Dr. Laver said students and community members can expect high-quality performances at least four times a semester in the future.
“This is a genuine state of the art Argentinian tango. It was interpreted with such a pure sense of what Argentinian music is, I was mesmerized,” Davidenko said.
