Oscar Edelstein
One music theory teacher from Paraná would take Edelstein with him to Santa Fe Conservatoire, at the age of eleven, to try to begin his study of harmony and counterpoint as an unofficial student.
There was Argentina's national radio station broadcasting concerts from Teatro Colón far away in Buenos Aires, stations from the BBC World Service, from Japan, and all over the world; and when asked by students, at a master class in London and in Birmingham in 2007, how a person from such a small town could become interested in contemporary music, he told a story that he has often told, describing how sitting listening to the radio in a car at night, with the rain, and a storm, and the sound of the river, he never quite knew what was the music and what was the interference.
At thirteen Edelstein went with Ortiz and some other boys on the long trip to Buenos Aires, taking the boat that crossed the river Paraná before the tunnel was built, to Teatro San Martin to see a work of John Cage and Merce Cunningham.
Both the experience and the memory of it are like an extraordinary dream where Edelstein remembers dancers with mirrors, intense conversation with Ortiz, and the cultural thrill of being in Buenos Aires for the first time.
His travels included two years in France, staying near Paris and also going to the Abbaye de Solesmes, visiting libraries, museums and monasteries to understand more about medieval music.
was Estudio y Aplicación de los medios digitales en la Composición Musical (1989–1991), supported by a scholarship of the Fundación Antorchas, and used by Edelstein to compose Viril Occidente II (the overture to El Telescopio).
It was the first journal in Latin America to be dedicated to the contemporary arts and in the editorial committee were Argentina's most important composers, musicologists, painters and writers.
Several directors in Brazil like Ge Orthof, Hugo Rodas, Fernando Villar, Silvia Davini and many others, have both staged and re-staged works of acoustic theatre by Edelstein.
Having always chosen to be an Argentine composer living in Argentina, it was only in 2007 that he made the step of introducing his work outside Latin America, by making a research trip to give concerts and master-classes in the UK.
Listening to this ritual at the border between the provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes, with the different kinds of groups all playing at the same time, and the Argentine rhythms of chamamé, polka, vals criollo, cumbia, chacarera, milonga and many others, mixing together, and added to by the "lloronas" hired to cry, was like a strange nightmare or a fantastic carnival that he always returns to in his compositions trying to revisit and rewrite.
"[8] In an interview he noted, "This kind of contradiction between the tragedy, the fiesta and the glory is the representation of the essential spirit of Argentina's story, also epitomized by our national heroes like, Eva Peron, Che Guevara, Carlos Gardel, and Diego Maradona."
What is different in Edelstein is his strong opposition to some nationalist academic folcloristas from Argentina, and also for some pseudo popular-folkloric musicians (who as he has pointed out only can understand these experiences in the European style – like tourists in their own land - and they make "folclore a la húngara" (Hungarian mode)).
In this way he contributes to the increase of the stature and imagination of Argentine music, but more in the line of Heitor Villa-Lobos (Brazil) where he says that "the folkloric is me" – just as Borges "enhanced" the story of the orilleros and gauchos.
[10] Edelstein's intention was that through playing together in a process of composition in the moment (rather than formally writing) he would create a new kind of synthesis of the Argentine experience and history of music.
Edelstein is seen as emerging from three sources; the tradition of the contemporary music of Argentina, in the line of composers who he very much appreciates, such as Juan Carlos Paz, Francisco Kröpfl, Carmelo Saitta, Gerardo Gandini, Mariano Etkin and many others; the popular musicians like Isaco Abitbol, Raúl Barboza, Remo Pignoni, Dino Saluzzi and Cuchi Leguizamón, to name but a few that he listened to whilst growing up; and equally to the colleagues and the composers of his generation that contributed to making the group Otras Musicas, including Pablo Di Liscia, Gustavo Mirabile and Daniel Montes.
The scope of his artistic visions, which include a new system of composition, design of instruments, theory, notation and theatre, could be compared to a Wagnerian's ideal, but Edelstein insists that he is more Argentine and Latin American – in other words more innocent, imaginative, ironic and hopefully little less ridiculous.
Edelstein is currently, Senior professor, Head of Composition (Acoustic and Electro Acoustic), and Director of a research programme at the University of Quilmes, in 2006 his research programme into new musical theories and acoustic techniques, the Programa de investigación Teatro Acústico,[2] won another landmark victory – it received funding from the Agencia de Promocion Científica y Tecnologica (a government agency that depends from the Argentinian Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva,[14] - the first time that a project in the arts has been awarded science funding and thus it was a major breakthrough for Edelstein's research group.
Working with a team of mathematicians, physicists, engineers, composers and musicians, Edelstein is developing his original ideas for new materials, techniques and approaches in spatial acoustics for theatre.
Edelstein's team are utilizing new materials based in the principal of sonic crystals to modulate the architecture of the acoustic space so as to add a new real-time parameter of control in a musical performance.
His electro acoustic group, the Ensamble Nacional del Sur [3] (ENS for short) are hugely popular, critically acclaimed as revolutionary, achieving a cult following in both Brazil and Argentina, and seen by Edelstein as a new instrument of composition.
Other guest musicians for the recent live concerts of Studies for The Acoustic Grid - Book II include Carlos Adriano Herrera (Bassoon), Soko Rodrigo (Flute), and Federico Linari (Harmonica).
Past permanent members were Mario Castelli, Nicolás Varchausky, Mariano Cura, Richard Arce, Jerónimo Carmona, and Diego Romero Mascaró.
Temporary members have been Pablo Chimenti, Hernán Kerlleñevich, Damián Anache, Nahuel Tavosnanska, Alfonso Ollúa, Rosa Nolly, Maria Laura Antonelli, and many others.
In 2014, for the most recent disc, the ensemble was joined by prestigious Argentinean artists, pianist-composer Ernesto Jodos and wood wind multi-instrumentalist Marcelo Moguilevsky.
It was critically acclaimed and created a considerable excitement as the first disc in Latin America to be recorded in Super Audio (5.1)[21] and as the first work in the world to have been specifically composed for this system.
The final aria of the work is Edelstein's setting of "El Rio," a poem by Juan L. Ortiz, that he uses to make a contrast with the scenes of decadence and decay.
The complex project involved a team of more than two hundred actors, plastics artists, technicians and musicians from both countries, and received the backing of UNESCO and funding from prominent foundations.
In 2010 this decision led to a commission from Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, under the direction of Pedro Ignacio Calderón with the soloist Eduardo Isaac (guitar) and called "La Foto Del Tiempo."
[10] Then in 2011 came a commission from Basel Sinfonietta leading to "Cristal Argento I" [11] and a premiere conducted by José Luis Gomez - who had just won first prize in the International Conductor's Competition of Sir Georg Solti at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, and went gone on to be in 2016 the new musical director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
