Diego Schissi (left) and Orlando Haddad (right)
American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between Argentinian composer Diego Schissi and Philadelphia-based Brazilian composer Orlando Haddad. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two artists will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.
The event is co-presented with Orchestra 2001 ahead of ¡CONEXIONES! Argentina in Philadelphia, November 6, 2021.
FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1969, Diego Schissi was exposed to tango but was quickly drawn to the sounds of jazz. He studied at Conservatorio Nacional López Buchardo and, moving to the United States, the University of Miami, where he studied jazz performance. Upon graduation, Schissi remained in the States performing in ensembles led by Tito Puente, Nestor Torres and Maria Schneider, among others.
Schissi returned to Buenos Aires in 1996. Up until that point, he had been entirely engrossed in jazz in study and performance over a span of 10 years. Schissi began playing with his own ensembles and with the popular Quinteto Urbano. His return to Buenos Aires found him increasingly drawn to the music of the legendary tango composer Astor Piazzolla. Schissi s focus began to shift to tango composition, a music that he had never played before.
In 2009, Schissi created the Diego Schissi Quinteto, a new ensemble that focused on Schissi s contemporary take on the tango model. The ensemble featured Schissi on piano along with violinist Guillermo Rubino, bandoneón player Santiago Segret, guitarist Ismael Grossman and bassist Juan Pablo Navarro. The performers came from different musical backgrounds. Where most contemporary ensembles featured members with classical and/or tango backgrounds, Grossman, Navarro and Schissi came from a strong jazz grounding.
The music takes many of the elements that Piazzolla established and embellishes them with the compositional concepts that were originated by 20th century classical composers like Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky. All these influences combine to create a sound that is not tango, but close.
Orlando Haddad brings a wealth of influences not only from his country of Brazil but as a guitarist, vocalist, composer, songwriter, recording artist, and arranger. A native of
Lavras, in the state of Minas Gerais, Orlando has been a bandleader since the age of 12. His father was a physician and his mom a piano teacher. Orlando studied classical piano before moving to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied the Villa-Lôbos Institute of music, taking guitar lessons privately from Marcel Gilbert Pierren, a Swiss expatriate living in Rio.
In 1974 he came to the US to attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he studied under Robert Ward (Pulitzer prize for The Crucible), and graduated with a bachelor degree in Composition. He received a Masters of Science in Arts Administration from Drexel University in 1986, and in 2002 another Masters in Composition, from Temple University, in Philadelphia.
Orlando taught Brazilian Music at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia for 10 years; his expertise in Brazilian music has inspired invitations to teach courses, classes, and clinics at numerous universities in the United States.
In addition to the collection of songs recorded on 6 album releases with Minas, Orlando has written 20th Century-style works: 2 song cycles, the chamber piece Transparencies, performed by Rèlache, and 12-tone duets for oboe and viola. Orlando has written music for 3 documentaries and was commissioned to write arrangements for The Orpheus Club of Philadelphia, a choir of 80 men, and commissioned by Live Connections to write a suite, "Baroque Meets Bossa", presented by Minas and the early music ensemble Melomanie. His latest chamber music piece, "Lendas Amazônicas" was commissioned by Orchestra 2001 and was premiered in June of 2021.
Minas has been working on a new album, “Beatles in Bossa”, featuring 14 Beatles songs reimagined in Brazilian styles.