Performance Bio

Minneapolis-based composer and bandoneonist Charles Gorczynski works in contemporary tango, new music, and studio production. He leads the acclaimed modern tango outfits Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet and Redwood Tango Ensemble, and is the artistic director of the Twin Cities Tango Collective.

Charles is an established tango musician and community organizer with a distinct voice in creative new tango music, stemming from an upbringing in improvised music and decades of tango composition and performance. His ensembles have toured extensively in North America and Europe, playing over a hundred performances each year and producing a series of acclaimed contemporary tango recordings for record labels in the United States and Argentina. Charles has premiered his compositions with Chamber Music Northwest Festival in Portland and the San Francisco International Arts Festival, worked as faculty with the Buenos Aires-based Tango Sin Fin organization for their programs at Reed College and the Tanguero Workshop with Julián Peralta, and is regularly commissioned for new works for tango chamber ensemble. As bandoneonist he has worked with Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Chorale, the California Symphony, Vocal Essence at Orchestra Hall, Mason Bates’ Mercury Soul Orchestra, the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, and many other orchestral and chamber music organizations. He has extensively collaborated and toured with international tango projects, including Mariano Barreiro Tango Trio, Tango BC Quartet, Alejandro Ziegler Cuarteto, Maxi Larrea Trio, Maldito Tango, and the Grammy-nominated Los Tangueros Del Oeste. Charles is known for both precision and creativity: embracing both the history of traditional tango music and the edges of contemporary tango composition with equal reverence.

Charles is the artistic director for Twin Cities Tango Collective, a community ensemble program that cultivates tango musicians in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area. Here he leads three orquesta tipicas (12-20 piece ensembles) of varying levels: Community Tango Ensemble, Northwoods Tango Ensemble, and Orquesta Tipica Kingfield, providing custom scores and inspired direction on how to engage with tango music. The collective hosts the annual Minnesota Tango Music Festival, a weekend-long event featuring all local tango projects as well as international guest artists from Buenos Aires and around the world.

On the production side, Charles has produced and contributed to hundreds of albums. He licenses and composes bespoke music for various media, and has worked with record labels Serein Records, Ropeadope, 482 Music, Ears and Eyes Records, Front Forty Press and Caverns Records.

Quotes

“A force in modern sound design…” - Jazz Times

“Lovely contrapuntal melodies and kaleidoscopic harmonic explorations… gorgeous music that brings to mind the serene aesthetic of ECM records” - Chicago Reader

"Truly one of the most exciting tango ensembles active in the US today." - Morgan Luker (author “The Tango Machine”)