Frank Ji – Beijing, China/ New York, NY, USA

A native of Beijing and currently based in New York City, Frank Jin is a Tango DJ, Tango Music Collector and a Tango Researcher.

Well-established as he is, Frank Jin has been showcasing his music extensively in 30+ countries, including legendary milongas in Buenos Aires, countless festivals, marathons and encuentros in Asia, Europe, North and South America. He is most-wanted by organizers, and beloved by dancers worldwide.

Frank Jin’s vast tango music collection and in-depth knowledge of tango culture legitimately vouch his skills in creating colorful and authentic music narratives; his rich experience helps him read the stories happening on the dance floor and decipher the secret codes of milongueros from different cultures at ease. His recent performances include Boston Tango Marathon, Moscow Tango Holiday, Ithaca Tango Marathon, Toronto Tango Experience, Zürich Tango Festivalito and  Seoul Tango Encuentro among others.

Frank will play on Friday April 10 from 9.30 to 11.30pm and on Sunday April 12 from 9.30pm to 2.30am).

Marcelo Rosensaft, Montevideo, Uruguay/ Tel Aviv, Israel

Marcelo grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay, in a family where tango was played and danced daily. Going out to dance tango was Marcelo’s parents leisure activity and his young uncle Jorge played piano in a band, mainly tango and bolero music. Of course, tango was for the oldies so Marcelo just accepted it as part of the culture, without much enthusiasm.  Once he got to his 50’s, and very far from his home town, he met tango again and fell in love hopelessly.

Marcelo started started his carear as a DJ after studying the tango music for several years when a new friend, Daniel, organizer, teacher and performer – needed help at his milonga and Marcelo became the house DJ of Daniel’s El Milongón, a bi-weekly milonga on Saturday evenings in Tel Aviv, After that he was invited to DJ in most of the milongas of that time in Tel Aviv. And also in special weekend gatherings from the tango old timers of Israel. Today Marcelo is the house DJ of La Milonguita and plays intermittently in Anka Kuhnel’s milonga and practica Alpha and at Tanya and Ilya Shwartz’s milonga Negra.

Between November 2013 and February 2015 Marcelo was spent all the time between in Buenos Aires and New York where Marcelo was “discovered” as a DJ and started his international DJ career. He played in some of the NYC milongas and started developing an informal fans club.

Since 2015 until today Marcelo visits New York 3-4 times a year and is invited in repeated occasions to play in most of New York milongas such as all Triangulo’s milongas – Carina Moeller’s La Sala, Maura Hays and Richard Ariza’s Friday Afternoon Milonga, Maura’s Twilight (Saturday) Milonga and Eddie Sanabria’s Domingo Tango Club, Lucille Krasne’s Esmeralda, Maria Jose Sosa’s Tango y Te practica, Alicia Cruzado’s Pasion Milonguera, Renee Rouger’s Milonga Falucho, Jon Tariq’s Mi Barrio and Paciencia milongas, Dragan Ranitovic Milonga Loca, Adam and Ciko Tango Café milonga, Yamila Viana’s Milonga Ferrari, Sarah La Rocca All Night Milonga,  Juan Vicente and Coco’s La Nacional and Héctor Pulpo Pereira’s Astoria Tango Club milonga.

Besides his “home tango towns:” Tel Aviv and New York, in the last years Marcelo has played all over North America and lately also in Europe: Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Phoenix (AZ), Albuquerque (NM), Santa Fe (NM), Saarbrucken (Germany), Den Haag, Culemborg and Bussum (The Netherlands)

In 2018 Marcelo started DJing at encuentros milongueros, marathons and festivals such as Andy Stein’s Newport News encuentro, Amy Allison’s Seattle encuentro, Melina Sedo and Detlef Engel’s FCA, Yemiko Yagui and Jae Young’s Utopia encuentro (Charleston, SC), Ray Barbosa’s Chicago tango festival, Alla Lakov’s Boston marathon among others. Several events have already booked Marcelo’s schedule for 2020, including several milongas in Buenos Aires.

Marcelo is devoted to danceable music and is an intuitive DJ. More than feeling the energy of the dance-floor – like one usually hears in the DJs’ jargon – Marcelo sets the energy at every moment. He always arrives at the milonga with a pre-arranged full playlist and here and there makes surgical adaptations according to his feeling of the atmosphere. Of course, he’s musicalized a full milonga creating the playlist on-the-fly but he likes more to prepare his list in advance.

Marcelo has developed his own unique program which displays information about the music to the dance-floor. Written in C#, Marcelo’s program “talks” dynamically with the music system and displays information to a wall, using a compact projector that he carries with him. In addition to a title with the name of the milonga, the organizer and the DJ, the system displays the actual tanda – orchestra and vocals/instrumental, the actual song with the time elapsed, and the next tanda.

Marcelo will play on Thursday April 9, 2020.

Marcelo  will also be the Official Competition DJ

Special DJ Workshop by MARK SAKOWSKI

The DJ workshop will give you insights into the aspects of the DJ’s role in playing music for Argentine tango dancers in a traditional music milonga from a veteran DJ with over 20 years experience playing for partner dancers, 17 years experience playing for tango dancers and a graduate of the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland. Topics discussed will include sound quality and equipment needed for a milonga, DJ software, DAC sound cards, “golden age” orchestras and top music for social dancing, crafting coherent tandas for social dance, tanda selection for keeping the dance floor full and energized, DJ’ing “in the moment” versus using a playlist, cortinas & timing and ending the milonga. Questions will be encouraged throughout.

More experience Djs do come and be part of the conversation!

Cost: $40 per person if check is received by March 25

$45 cash at door

Registration and payment with check for the DJ Workshop

Make check to the order of: Argentine Tango USA
Send it to: 530 Showers Dr, Suite 7 – 178 Mountain View, CA 94040
Do not forget to include your name and email when your send your check.