Biography

Pianist and composer LUIS BACALOV was born in Buenos Aires, where at the age of five began his music education with Enrique Barenboim and continued then with Berta Sujovolsky, a pupil of Arthur Schnabel.

Started very early his concert activity in Argentina. Appeared then as a soloist , in a duo with the violinist Alberto Lissy and in several chamber music groups. LUIS BACALOV researched popular music all over Latin America and work in this same field for the Radio and Television of Colombia, for which he also performed and recorded extensively the 19th and 20th century American repertoire for the piano.

From the sixties onward, LUIS BACALOV has been an active composer for cinema in Italy, France and the United States. He has worked with film directors such as Lattuada, Damiani, Scola, Petri, Giraldi, Wertmüller, Kurys, Stora, Lefebvre, Borowczyk, Greco, Frazzi brothers, Passolini, Fellini, Radford and Rosi, among others.

LUIS BACALOV won several prizes and nominations for original soundtracks of films. Among the latest prizes are the “OSCAR” of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Science of Hollywood, the “Globo d’Oro” of the foreign press in Italy, the “Nastro d’Argento” of the Association of the Film Critics, the BAFTA prize (British Academy for Film and Television Arts) and the “Prize Nino Rota”, all of them for the film “Il Postino”, directed by Michael Radford. And the “Davide di Donatello” for the soundtrack of the film “La Tregua” directed by Francesco Rosi.

In addition to his activity as a composer, LUIS BACALOV continues to perform extensively throughout Europe and Latin America as a soloist with the orchestra, as well as recitalist and as a member of his own quartet: piano, bandondeon, percussion and double-bass dedicated to the “tango and around” repertoire, a result of his deep knowledge of ethnic, urban and contemporary music.

During 2000 Deutsche Grammphon released one compact disc dedicated to LUIS BACALOV. The recording includes his “Misa Tango” for tenor, mezzo-soprano and bandondeon soloists, double choir and symphony orchestra. The cast includes tenor Plácido Domingo, mezzo-soprano Ana María Martínez, bandondeon player Héctor Ulises Passarella, the "Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia” under the baton of Myun-Whun Chung. Other pieces in the album are Bacalov’s “Tangosaín” for piano and orchestra and his own arrangements of Astor Piazzola’s “Adiós Nonino” and “Libertango” with LUIS BACALOV as a soloist. This recording has been nominated for the 2001 version of the Latin Grammy Awards in the category of classical music.