My beginnings with the bandoneon

I heard a bandoneon for the first time when I was about 14 or 15 years old. It was from an album that I found at home, it belonged to my parents.

It featured Astor Piazzolla playing live with his quintet.

I immediately fell in love not only with the music but also with the sound of that magical instrument. It spoke to me about things I had never heard before, but that I somehow understood perfectly.

A few years later, when I was 20 years old, I had saved up a bit of money and asked for a loan to complete what was missing to achieve my goal: to buy a bandoneon.

Only, there was a problem: I was living in Finland, the internet didn´t offer as much information as it does nowadays, and I knew of no one in Finland who could play bandoneon or give me any advice on how to get one, let alone teach me how to play it.

Eventually and after much investigating, I got acquainted by mail with a trustworthy dealer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I transferred him the value of the instrument (3000€, which at the time was a HUGE deal to me as a struggling Latin American student in a Nordic country), and he sent it to me by post mail.

I didn´t get the chance to see it or try it out before. Not that it would´ve served much, I had no idea how to play it…

Once I got it, I was ecstatic with joy. My dream had come true! Only now, I had to learn how to play it. Youtube didn´t exist yet, so there was no chance of an online tutorial. I had to figure it out on my own.

How did I do it?

Maybe I´ll let the rest in another post.

For now, remember that these are the last few days you can buy my CD album “An Imaginary Soundtrack” featuring my own compositions for bandoneon. After that, it won´t be for sale anymore, likely never again.

Here is the link.

Have a nice day,

Claudio.