On Friday, June 28th, Reed College offered a free Tango concert in its Eliot Hall Chapel. A large audience was treated to ninety minutes of live, exhilarating Argentine music – performed by musicians participating in the college’s summer program, “Tango for Musicians”.
Tango for Musicians is North America’s leading workshop for players of any instrument who want to learn to play, arrange, compose, improvise, and/or teach the rich and diverse musical form of Tango music. Workshops were not held during the pandemic, except for one year online, but they resumed this year in person – and, from now on, they will be held every other year.
In this unique summer program, artistic faculty from Argentina teaches students who come from far and wide. The more than sixty participants travel from different parts of the U.S. and Europe, as well as Japan, Latin America, and Australia, to learn new Tango playing skills, or to expand their repertoire. At the end of the week, participants share new compositions and newly-honed skills in several public concerts, one including Tango dancing, on a weekend in June.
This distinctive experience was started at Reed in 2013 by Morgan Luker, a Woodstock resident, and Reed College’s Associate Professor of Music (ethnomusicology). Luker grew up playing saxophone, and then attended the University of Wisconsin to study music performance. In his final years there he became interested in ethnomusicology.
In 2004 he traveled to Argentina, as a graduate student, to study the effect of the country’s economic collapse on local music. He insisted he wasn’t going there to study Tango music, thinking that would be too stereotypical. But he surprised himself, and became enamored with inspiring and vigorous music that was much richer and more culturally complex than he had imagined.
The Reed “Tango for Musicians” program builds upon Luker’s 2004 experiences and connections from his twelve months of fieldwork leading to his dissertation on the Tango music communities in Buenos Aires.
That year in Argentina in 2004, plus three subsequent visits – three months each – and many additional trips to continue learning and making connections with musicians Argentina, are why Reed is so supportive of these unique workshops that are shared with the community. And to continue learning, Luker is working on his second book. He told THE BEE, “It is about the early years of the recorded sound industry in Argentina, and how recordings from that time largely came to define how the popular music industry works internationally.”
This summer the performances included musical combinations of bandoneon (a “button squeeze box” or concertina), guitar, violin, piano, saxophone, flute, clarinet, bass fiddle, and several vocalists. It is always evident that the musicians enjoy learning, playing, and performing together.
Luker told THE BEE that the college has been supportive of his work over the years because it recognizes the importance and uniqueness of these workshops. He is pleased and proud that the events are open to the public, and mostly free due to that support. He adds, “This is actually the first year we ever charged anything [for the faculty concert – $30, or suggested donation] because of some budget-tightening.”
So mark June of 2026 on your calendar for treating yourself to the invigorating music of Tango at Reed College. For more information, refer to – http://www.reed.edu/events
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