During Cremona Musica 2021, will take place a presentation about an interesting book which celebrates the birth centenary of Maestro Astor Piazzolla.

The author, Maria Susanna Azzi from Buenos Aires, is a cultural anthropologist who sits on the board of the Astor Piazzolla foundation in Argentina. She studied European immigration to Argentina from different perspectives, as well as the evolution of musical culture and its highest national expression: the tango. She will present her book “Astor Piazzolla, Una vita per la musica”, written in 2019, translated and edited by Edizioni Sillabe, to date, the most complete biography on Astor Piazzolla. She will also talk about the deep bond of this great musician with Italy.

The book “ASTOR PIAZZOLLA, UNA VITA PER LA MUSICA” by Maria Susana Azzi

This book, the only one in Italy sponsored by the Astor Piazzolla Fundación, tells the life of Piazzolla and collects information from 260 interviews with relatives, musicians, friends, and famous people in art, entertainment and culture. These include Daniel Barenboim, Kronos Quartet, Al Di Meola, Tonino Guera, Milva, Lalo Schifrin, Georges Moustaki, Plácido Domingo, Carter Brey, Leandro “Gato” Barbieri, Gary Burton, Paquito D´Rivera, Richard Galliano, Martial Solal, Hermeto Pascoal, and Aurora Natola Ginastera.
In the book, María Susana Azzi captures the life of this extraordinary Italian-Argentine musician and his artistic journey from Argentine folk music to Tango Nuevo. We thus discover the man and the musician, the controversial revolutionary genius who transformed tango into music to listen to and not just to dance, music rich in jazz, klezmer and contemporary classical music influences. It is the most complete biography of this surprisingly gifted musician.

THE AUTHOR

María Susana Azzi is a cultural anthropologist who has thoroughly investigated the history of European immigration to Argentina from different perspectives: Argentine music and tango, institutional life and sport, business in the Rio de la Plata, industry and regional economies. She has written for various Argentine and foreign publishers and record companies, has collaborated on documentaries for RAI and Sony Classical and has been a consultant for numerous institutions, including the Americas Society, Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Academia Nacional de Ciencias Políticas y Morales, American Anthropological Association, Austrian Science Fund, Swiss National Science Foundation, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Migrantes Foundation, Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg.
She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Astor Piazzolla International Foundation and of the Academia Nacional del Tango, as well as author and co-author of several books – including “Antropología del Tango” and “Pioneros de la Industria Argentina”. In 2018 she received a gold medal from the Lucchesi nel Mondo Association, and in 2019 the important honor as “Personalidad Destacada de la Cultura por la Legislatura de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires”. Her curiosity led her to travel to all continents, including Antarctica. She lives in Buenos Aires and is a great lover of photography and sports.