TANGO ARTISTS
Leonardo and Olga Suarez Paz are internationally recognized, multi-talented artists that are dedicated to presenting tango as an artistically complex, emotionally moving and daring genre by incorporating all expressions of the tango art: music, dance, song and poetry. Their creativity speaks through their company, Cuartetango and the productions they direct, which have been featured at the Teatro Colon Opera House, Teatro Alvear, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on PBS, Fox 5, Ebru TV in films and the Latin Grammy Awards, following a double nomination.
Leonardo Suarez Paz is a 4th generation Tango artist from Buenos Aires, billed by the press as “Tango Royalty” (Erie Times-News). Born into a famous tango family with a “last name of the best tango legacy” (Diario Critica de la Argentina) he is known for his uncommon talent as a singer, a tango dancer and an artist who “possesses a unique spirit and is a virtuoso extraordinaire on the violin” (Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York).
A multiple Grammy nominee Leonardo Suarez Paz has been featured on scores of Grammy-winning and historical recordings and in many films (Flawless with Robert DiNiro, The Imposters, Bossa Nova, Circo de Arrabal and others) and is considered one of the top artists of the genre today. A child prodigy, he began his musical career at the age of six with singing and recorded commercially. He trained as a opera singer and shortly after he began to study violin. By the age of 14 Leonardo was playing professionally, and became the youngest member of the prestigious Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colon at the age of 16. At the same time, Leonardo began dancing tango, following in the footsteps of his grandparents. He frequented milongas and studied with maestros Juan Carlos Copes and Miguel Angel Zotto, before taking his dancing to the stage in the iconic shows of Tangox2 and Perfumes de Tango. His style reflects the elegant, smooth and grounded salon style coupled with strength, presence and innate musicality. The salon style is something Leonardo has carried with him throughout his career. In 1994 and 1996, he was awarded “Pa’ que bailen los muchachos” Buenos Aires award of the milongueros.
Leonardo’s choice between Teatro Colon and Tango orchestras was a difficult one, but one that would initiate a great touring career in Tango. His artistic qualities and unique talents made him the only tango artist to perform as a violin soloist and dancer in the legendary shows including The Mariano Mores Show and Miguel Angel Zotto’s - TangoX2 and Perfumes de Tango, with which he traveled throughout France, Italy, Spain, England, Greece, Japan, Mexico and the United States. He was the violin soloist in both the Broadway tango productions of Tango Argentino and Forever Tango and has worked with Orlando Tripodi, Atilio Stampone, Osvaldo Requena, Nestor Marconi, Osvaldo Berlingieri and Horacio Salgan among many others. Mentored by Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer, who had a profound influence on him since his childhood and growing up with his legendary father, Fernando, a co-creator of the Tango revolution, Leonardo carries forth the legacy of Nuevo Tango.
Since 2009, Leonardo is accompanied by his wife, Olga Suarez Paz, an emerging talent of tango, who has been praised by the critics for the “high quality” of her dancing and “stunning vocal performance” (Mike Telin, Cleveland Classical). Her tango credits include Andrea Misse’s Tangodanza, with which she made her debut, Opus Cuatro, and Café de Los Angelitos in Buenos Aires. Olga & Leonardo have appeared together in many venues in South and North America including numerous times at the Lincoln Center as guest tango dancers and twice with their own company, Cuartetango Music & Dance. They have danced with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, for Latin star Luis Miguel, were featured on television programs such as Fox 5 Good Day New York and in films, including a recently released documentary, Circo De Arrabal, featuring the music of Argentine Grammy-winning composer Carlos Franzetti (Mambo Kings, Tango Fatal), which featured Leonardo as a violin soloist and Leonardo and Olga as tango dancers.
Together Leonardo & Olga direct Cuartetango String Quartet, Cuartetango Music & Dance Company and the shows Romance de Tango and Masters of Nuevo Tango. Their company has been featured in venues from the Teatro Colon Opera House in Buenos Aires and the Buenos Aires Tango Festival to the Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Latin GRAMMY-Awards ceremony, where Cuartetango became the first Tango ensemble in history to perform live in 2012, following a double nomination. Their company was featured on PBS WHYY “On Canvas” that dedicated a half hour special to Leonardo and on Ebru TV program “Rhythm and Roots,” which won an EMMY award in 2010.
Leonardo is an Official Representative of the Academia Nacional Del Tango, one of 16 government Academies in Argentina and as such he conducts master classes, lectures and residencies, supporting the Academy’s goal as an “institution of academic hallmark, to meditate” the genre of tango, to preserve and to know its history, aesthetics and to promote its creation in Argentina and world-wide.
