The voice, the embrace, the walk

Want to travel the world this weekend, without leaving Stowe?

Pull up a chair and close your eyes, or strap on your dancing shoes, and allow yourself to be swept away by the Stowe Tango Music Festival.

“Tango has traveled since the beginning,” said Hector Del Curto, artistic director and co-founder of the festival.

Del Curto’s home country of Argentina is known for tango, but the music has evolved over the years into a rich fusion of cultures and musical traditions.

“Tango can be very slow and romantic, very passionate, sometimes violent,” Del Curto said. “All the emotions come out. There’s a lot of drama in tango.”

At the Stowe festival, “each venue has its charm,” he said.

“Tango has the possibility of being played in any environment,” Del Curto said. “If you play outdoors, or in the church, or you play in the concert hall, or you play in the corner, or in the café.”

Sharing the tango

Del Curto’s Stowe connection began in 2001 with Jo Fish, a Stowe resident who founded the nonprofit Argentine Tango Society and is chairman of the festival, but his strongest bond was formed in 2005 when he brought an orchestra, including cellist Jisoo Ok, to perform at the Trapp Family Lodge meadow.

“That cellist today is my wife,” Del Curto said. Ok is also executive director and co-founder of the festival.

“The first time we started to see the possibility of being together was in Stowe … and after we left here we knew that there was some interest. So I started to invite all my orchestra to social dancing,” Del Curto said. “The only person who would not come is her.

“But one day she came, and we danced tango, and now we have an 8-year-old,” Del Curto said — their son, Santiago, already an accomplished musician himself.

“It’s a very strong connection. I mean, this place, how can you not love it? It’s an amazing place.”

This year, performances and workshops will take place at Stowe Free Library and its gazebo, Stowe Community Church, Stowe Area Association and Studio 108.

While many events are public, a great deal of instruction goes on behind the scenes. Students from all over the world — Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, Argentina — come to learn from renowned musicians. Three finalists were selected for the Che Bandoneon competition, and will play solo and with the orchestra, walking away with a cash prize as well as the experience of a lifetime.

The festival opens today with a tango jam at Mountain Road Resort, where local musicians are welcome to bring an instrument and read along with the tango students and faculty.

“You can play by imitation, and you have your first experience with tango,” Del Curto said.

There’s a milonga — dance party — at the Rusty Nail Friday night, with instruction by dancers Ana Padron and Diego Blanco.

On Saturday, the festival concert at Spruce Peak features Del Curto’s full tango orchestra, with bandoneon players as well as violin and viola, cello, double bass, piano and clarinet, and dancers Miriam Larici, Leonardo Barrionuevo, Padron and Blanco.

The voice of tango

Del Curto’s romance with the tango is multifaceted — he’s been music director for the Broadway and touring show “Forever Tango,” he composes a bit and dances socially — but his true passion is the bandoneon.

The bandoneon is a type of concertina, an instrument like an accordion, with buttons on each side and bellows that contain reeds over which air flows to create sound. It is held in two hands, balanced on your knee and played as if you mean to crack it open and let the melodies run out. Movements range from smooth and sinuous to bouncy and forceful, depending on the style of music.

There’s a zip, an edge to the tones produced by the bandoneon that is distinctive to tango music.

“It has a sweetness; it’s also a very deep sound. It has different colors in the two hands. It’s like having two instruments,” Del Curto said. “It’s very sweet and dark on the left hand, a little bit brighter on the right hand.

“The combination of both, it can take you to many places. You can travel a lot with that instrument.”

The bandoneon was popular in Germany in the early 20th century, a compact yet multifaceted instrument meant to replace the organ.

“Somehow because of the complex system that it has, not many people played it in Germany,” Del Curto said, “but it made it to Argentina,” where it became “the voice” of tango.

When Del Curto was young, he was learning guitar, but was inspired by his family to take up the bandoneon.

“I grew up with tango music. My music is tango music,” he said.

His great-grandfather was a professional musician, and he watched his grandfather practice all the time.

“I saw this instrument and I was attracted to it,” Del Curto said.

He didn’t start playing bandoneon until age 11 because of “the size of the instrument, and there is a certain strength that you need to play it — besides, your hands have to reach the keyboard.”

“In my generation, there were about 10 bandoneon players, then kind of a revival,” Del Curto said. “Now, anywhere you go you have bandoneon players and they create these communities.”

With many tango composers, and many different styles and arrangement possibilities, “it’s like having one language and many dialects,” Del Curto said.

He’s fluent in both “traditional” and “new” tango, and in 2013 released “Eternal Piazzolla,” an album honoring the music of esteemed composer Astor Piazzolla.

“There are many layers in the music that you can follow, and that you can discover,” Del Curto said. “I still discover something new every time I hear a piece of tango.”

The embrace and the walk

At the beginning of popular tango music were the immigrants that came to Buenos Aires, Del Curto said.

“In the same house, which had a long aisle, there would be different rooms. In those rooms would be an Italian guy, a German guy, a Spanish guy, any nationality … the only language in common was music, so they would bring their instruments and play music and also dance,” Del Curto said, “because there’s another thing that’s universal, and it’s embrace. Everybody embraces.”

The combination of the music and dance made communication and socializing possible, Del Curto said — “it was a language that was created.”

“Tango comes from tarantella, from paso double, from foxtrot, from jazz these days, from classical music.”

Dance may be the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think of tango, and that’s fine: “Dance is the most important thing, because that’s where the rhythm comes from,” Del Curto said. “It’s the walk. Dancing is just a way of walking, for tango.”

Del Curto asserts that tango is for all ages and skill levels.

“That’s the beauty of it, you can get into it with no experience, take some classes and be able to ‘walk’ with the music. If you’re a listener you will be already inspired, moved by the melodies, the rhythm. People get absolutely nuts and passionate about this music,” Del Curto said.

“Tango goes into your mind, into your soul, and into your body,” Del Curto said.

He wants to not only pass along the culture of tango, but “for people to experience what is it about tango that makes people all over the world to come to it. Not only that they come to it; they never leave.”