Fernando Otero

Fernando Otero was born in Buenos Aires, into a family of musicians. He received his first singing and piano lessons from his mother, Elsa Marval, a renowned opera singer and pianist. Since early childhood he has studied piano, harmony and composition that prepared him for his later master classes in orchestration and conducting with Domingo Marafiotti (resident conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires). The inspiring environment of his upbringing allowed Otero to absorb diverse musical styles such as the traditional tango, local folklore, classical music, and Jazz.

Still in his student years, Otero started writing music for piano, choir, strings and brass quintets. However, his special interest in Argentine folklore led him to explore intensely the instruments which are characteristic for such music, like the bandoneon, guitar, charango, acordeon, and percussion. It was not long after that he started to incorporate the use of the bandoneon in most of his compositions. By combining elements of the popular music of his nation with improvisational jazz solos and classic piano cadenzas woven together by traditional as well as contemporary composition techniques, Fernando arrived at his own unique style.

It is a style that generates moods and taps into the increasing appetite of sophisticated audiences for a new authentic sound.It therefore comes as no surprise that his performance schedule has taken him to more than thirty countries and allowed him to excite audiences in some of the most prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Town Hall and the Glenn Gould Studio.