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Brilliant Bandoneonist Guillermo Willis at Stoke Newington Early Music Festival -1st July 2026
Jun
Toccata to Tango
Wednesday, 1st July 2026 11:00am
The Harriet Delph Room, Abney Park Cafe N16
Guillermo Willis – bandoneon
Argentinian bandoneon player Guillermo Willis presents a highly unusual programme, ranging from paraphrases of 12th century plainchant through toccatas and sonatas by Frescobaldi and Scarlatti to 20th century tango.
Originally intended for sacred music and later adopted into the tango bands of Argentina, the bandoneon is an ‘early’ instrument with a fascinating history. Guillermo Willis lived in the UK for a brief period and would often be heard in tango concerts. Applying his considerable skills to playing early music on bandoneon makes him part of the new generation of bandoneonists who play music that isn’t tango on the bandoneon too. It should make for a very interesting concert.
Guillermo Willis, an Argentinian bandoneonist of the new generation, is committed to what he describes as an “archaeology of the bandoneon.” Bridging the worlds of Tango and Baroque music, his solo repertoire revives tangos from historic original recordings, juxtaposing them with masterworks from the 17th and 18th centuries. Willis seeks to surprise audiences with the bandoneon’s expressive power and dynamic range, and to foster a deeper connection with the instrument and the tango tradition.
Trained under masters Néstor Marconi and Rodolfo Daluisio at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory in Buenos Aires, he has performed at prestigious venues including Argentina’s National Historical Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Argentine Embassy in London. In the UK, he was a member of the Desbande Quintet — performing at Milton Court in 2024 — and collaborated with the London Chamber Orchestra and Tango Terra Ensemble. In 2022, he presented Joshua Bell’s Royal Albert Hall Proms concert for BBC Radio 4. Nowadays based in Madrid, he is a member of the Orquesta Argenta Típica.
www.guillermowillisbandoneon.com
