Biography

Ivan Gutierrez Cachullani is a multifaceted Argentine musician capable of combining the art of the Bandoneon, singing, and composition in a single expression, also representing tango and Argentine music in a unique way.

His commitment to the development and incorporation of the Bandoneon in academic and contemporary music is reflected in his works and his book “THE BANDONEON: A practical guide for composers” (2020), the first published work of its kind and declared of cultural interest by the National Ministry of Culture (2021).

Iván Gutierrez Cachullani (1987) was born in San Juan, Argentina. With a family heritage in singing and folklore from Cuyo, he studied in the city of Salta, where he also had close contact with the folklore of northwestern Argentina. He graduated with a degree in Composition from the Universidad Católica de Salta under the tutelage of composer and orchestra conductor M° Jorge Diego Vázquez Salvagno. He studied bandoneon and tango technique and interpretation with professors Amijai Shalev, Rodolfo Daluisio, and Juan Carlos Marín, graduating from the bandoneon career at the Escuela Superior de Música (EMS, school of music) “José Lo Giudice” where he currently works as a bandoneon teacher. At the same time, he studied vocal technique with professors Francisco Canavidez, Suki Jantzen, and Luciano Garay.

Between 2012 and 2019 he was a member of the soloist ensemble of the EMS, a chamber orchestra committed to the musical production and dissemination of Latin American composers of the 20th and 21st century with which he participated giving concerts and lectures on the Bandoneon at the “I Encuentro Internacional de Música Contemporánea de Fortaleza” at the Universidad Estadual Do Ceará (UECE), Fortaleza, Brazil. His experience in this orchestra prompted him to create a solution for the scarce production of music for soloist bandoneon and chamber music today. Thus, in 2020 he published “BANDONEÓN PARA COMPOSITORES: acústica, organología y escritura idiomática” (THE BANDONEON: A practical guide for composers), which offers organized and useful information for composers, conductors, performers, and amateurs interested in composing and performing music for solo Bandoneon and chamber music.

In 2018 and 2019 he toured in Mexico, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Panama City as a soloist interpreter of “Tango en Bandoneón y Voz” (Tango for Bandoneon and Voice), a repertoire of classics from the golden age of tango, with strong influences in the authentic and traditional spirit of Argentine music. Works by composers such as Aníbal Troilo, Homero Manzi, Julián Plaza, Alfredo De Angelis and Eduardo Arolas are sung and played on Bandoneon, with original arrangements in traditional style.

In 2019 he teamed up with Argentine singer and guitarist Aíto Rodriquez, the “Dúo Rodriguez – Gutierrez” (the Rodriguez – Gutierrez Duo) where singing joins the traditional formation of guitar and Bandoneon, thus forming a “cuarteto de a dos” (quartet of two) combining the robustness of traditional tango with the subtlety of vocal-instrumental chamber music.

He was awarded a grant by the Fondo Ciudadano de Desarrollo Cultural (Citizens’ Fund for Cultural Development) in 2018/2021, by the Becas Creación del Fondo Nacional de las Artes (Creation Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts) (2018), and by the Becas Formación del Fondo Nacional de las Artes (Creation Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts) (2021)