GUITARIST- COMPOSER- SINGER
Alberto Rojo was born in Tucumán, Argentina. He started playing the piano at the age of six and picked up the guitar as a teenager. He studied at the Conservatorio Provincial de Música in Tucumán and later won a scholarship to study guitar with Eduardo Frasson in the Camping Musical Bariloche.From 1980 to 1982 created played with Gaudeamus, a band with a medieval and renaissance music repertoire.
In 1982 decided to study Physics and moved to Bariloche. From then on he alternated his creative interest between music and science. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics in 1990 and moved to the United States. He was a researcher at the University of Chicago and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan. During that period he also intensively practiced the guitar and wrote pieces that were later performed by (among others) Mercedes Sosa, Argentinean rock idol Charly García, Víctor Villadangos, Dorian recording artist Berta Rojas and Carmina Cannavino and are part of the curricula of Latin American music schools.
He participated in several guitar festivals and in 1999 the Argentinean label Epsa Music released De Visita, his first solo album. That same year, two of his pieces were included in Victor Villadangos’ CD Classics of the XXI Century
His solo guitar pieces are published by Lathkill Music Publishers, United Kingdom.
In 2002, Argentinean label Acqua Records released Para mi sombra, his second album, focusing on an Argentinean folkloric repertoire, produced by former Pat Metheny vocalist Pedro Aznar and with Argentinean rock idol Charly García as a musical guest. The album received raving reviews in Argentina and was chosen as one of the best five folkloric albums of 2003 by Rolling Stone magazine of Argentina. In 2004 his song “Chacarera del Fuego” from the album was anthologized in the album A Rough Guide to the Music of Argentina from the English label World Music Network.
In April 2002 Alberto was invited by Grammy winner and legendary singer Mercedes Sosa to participate in her concert at Massey Hall in Toronto and later repeated the invitation in Teatro el Círculo in Rosario, Argentina. Sosa has publicly praised Alberto’s exquisite songwriting (she declared herself his “number one fan”) and has included several of Alberto’s songs in her repertoire.
In 2004 Rojo toured the South of Argentina, including the cities of Ushuaia, Río Grande, Trelew, Bariloche, Neuquén. The peculiar aspect of this series of concerts is that they were preceded by popular talks delivered by Alberto on Everyday Physics and the connection between Jorge Luis Borges’ literature and quantum mechanics.
In 2005 Mercedes invited Alberto to record two duos in her album Corazón Libre, released worldwide by the German label Deutsche Grammophon. In this project Alberto joined some of the most prestigious Argentinean guitarists, Eduardo Falú, Luis Salinas and Chango Farías Gómez.
In September 2005 Alberto played was selected to play in the Mercat de Música Viva Vic (Cataluña, Spain). Later in September, he performed in the Semana Musical del Llao Llao festival in Bariloche (Argentina). The year ended in a high note when, on December 21, Mercedes Sosa invited him to play two songs in Tucumán in a outdoor concert that attracted a crowd of 15,000 and was broadcast in national TV.
Mercedes repeated the invitation in January 2006 during the Cosquín festival in Córdoba (Argentina).
Rojo currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is Associate Professor of Physics at Oakland University.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
• “Rojo’s music is very enjoyable, intelligently written and has combinations of folk, jazz, classical and flamenco elements. From the first bars of the opening composition, Parita, one is immediately captivated by the beauty of the piece and this certainly whets the appetite for what is to come, a programme which certainly lives up to its initial standard. [...] This short recital has it all.” (Steve Marsh, Classical Guitar Magazine, UK, May 2002)
• “Virtuosity and genuine folklore” (Ambito Financiero, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2003)
• “Para mi sombra is an album that defines the folkloric genre” (Revista Veintitrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2003)
• “The exquisite Alberto Rojo” (René Vargas Vera, La Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• “An extraordinary singer and guitarist ”(Diario Río Negro, Río Negro, Argentina,2003)
• Although residing in Michigan currently, this composer was born in Argentina and according to the preface has a most impressive set of credentials. The three pieces on offer here have a certain amount of the Latin style about them, but even more of the slightly folksy, cross-over style of a musician who, like many of us, has obviously dabbled in much more than classical music along the way. The opening Parita is marked ‘lento y dulce’ and has a memorable melody over some gently swaying chords before a slightly contrasting middle section leads to a climax on a C#m7 chord and a return to the opening idea. A lovely start! Punto Aparte is a semiquaver-dominated ‘allegretto’ with plenty of off-beat rhythms and interesting chord changes, and is technically the most difficul of the three pieces, whilst the final De Visita is a ‘lento’ with a dropped D tuning with a lovely melody over some nicely exotic chords, mainly arpeggiated. Nothing here is hackneyed or similar to what you have heard before, for what comes over in this little set is just how good a composer this man is. They are not too difficult to play, but you would have to be of a certain technical standard to do some parts of them justice. This is a nice set, well printed and presented, by a composer I would like to hear more of. Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine, July 2003)
• An exquisite, noteworthy album in Argentinean folk music. With classical accentuation, imbued with the elegance and sway of Latin romance, “Para Mi Sombra” fluidly takes the listener from the charm of Ginastera to a sensuous, Latin jazz sway. Produced by former Pat Metheny vocalist, Pedro Aznar, and with Argentinean rock idol, Charly Garcia starring as a musical guest, Rojo bears a gorgeous album, carrying with it, an entire world of sights, sounds and smells. Your senses will be stirred with the soft pulling of his finesse. Tamara Turner (CD Baby).
