Bruno Cavallaro, violin   Cavallaro started studying music formally when he was 15 years old and two years later after an intensive audition, he was chosen by Maestro Lysy to study violin at the Music Center Lysy in Carilo, Buenos Aires.  A few years later, Cavallaro decided to immerse himself in popular music, including tango.  He joined the Tango y Punto tango orchestra and performed in major concert halls in Mendoza, Argentina and Santiago, Viña del Mar, Valparaiso, Chile.  In 2000, Cavallaro joined the youth sextet, Fusion Mendoza, an ensemble that played only Astor Piazzolla’s music.  At the same time he performed regularly with the Municipal Orchestra of Mendoza.  The following year, Cavallaro formed his own string quartet, Rabel, which performed in Mendoza, Buenos Aires, and Rioja, Argentina, and participated in the Festival of International Music in Buenos Aires.   Cavallaro’s  dedication to the music of Astor Piazzolla paid off when in 2003 he was chosen as the first violin in the show Maria de Buenos Aires, a musical composed by Piazzolla.  This 2003 performance at the Teatro Independencia in Buenos Aires was sponsored by the Astor Piazzolla Foundation and hosted by Piazzolla’s wife, Laura Escalada de Piazzolla.  By the next year, Cavallaro was directing, arranging, and performing with his newly-formed quintet, Bando, an ensemble dedicated to interpreting the music of Piazzolla.  Bando twice toured to the US, performing in New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC, the latter with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra at the Lisner Auditorium and the Embassy of Argentina.  Only two years after forming Bando¸ Cavallaro decided to disband the group so that he could dedicate his time to composing music.  Within only a few months, he again formed a new group, this time a trio, consisting of talented cellist, Juan Ignacio Emme and pianist, Marcelo Ayub.  Shortly thereafter, Juan Pablo Jofre joined them as the bandoneon player and in late 2007 Pablo Cafici, as pianist, replacing Ayub (who joined the Teatro Colon Opera).  This new quartet not only performs works of Astor Piazzolla but also original pieces composed by Bruno.  Last year, the Bruno Cavallaro Quartet recorded an album, City Madness (Ciudadana Locura), featuring works composed and arranged by Cavallaro.   Juan Ignacio Emme, violoncello   Juan Ignacio started studying the cello in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1995 with Nestor Long, first cellist with the Symphony Orchestra of the National University of Cuyo. By 2003, he was studying in Buenos Aires under Juarez Johnson and in 2004, with Enrique Maltz, the latter a cellist from the Philharmonic Orchestra of Israel.  In 2006, Juan had the special opportunity to study at the International Ithaca Violoncello Institute under the tutelage of Professors Basel Sarweh and Einar Jeff Holm.  He graduated from the Beethoven Conservatory in Buenos Aires with a degree in Violoncello.    Though only 23 years old, Juan Ignacio has studied under and played with alongside some of the world’s most renowned musicians, including Jose Condar, Carlos Prieto, Christopher Wilkins, Alvaro Gonzalez, Christoph Eschembach, Cristobal Halfter, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Benjamín Zander, Pablo Zinger, Néstor Marconi, Martha Argerich, Atilio Stampone, Yo-Yo Ma, Paquito d’Rivera, Bebo Valdez, Plácido Domingo, among others.    His talent led to scholarships from the Schleswig-Holstein Foundation in Germany, from the Academy Orchestra (founded by Leonard Bernstein), from the Antorchas Foundation in Buenos Aires, from Harvard University, and from the Raitmman and Tuber Collection. In 2004, he received a prestigious scholarship from the Youth Orchestra of the Americas Foundation to perform for the next two years with this well-known group across the United States, in Mexico, and in Venezuela.  With the Youth Orchestra, Juan Ignacio performed at Carnegie Hall, the Apollo Theatre, and at the George Washington Lisner’s Auditorium, receiving the highest praise from the orchestra’s program director (“we were honored by his [Juan Ignacio] participation, not only for his exceptional musical talent but also for his capacity for leadership”).   A musician in great demand, Juan Ignacio keeps a busy performance schedule, having played as soloist in many orchestras across the globe.  He has performed at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, in Costa Rica, in Panama, in Ecuador, in Lima, Peru, in Belo Horizonte and Sao Paolo, Brazil, Montevideo, Uruguay, Rosario and Mendoza, Argentina, Caracas, Venezuela, Israel, and Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.  This is Juan Ignacio’s first performance with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra.      Pablo Cafici, piano   Cafici realized he was musical when only 9 years old but he did not begin to study music until he was 19, at the National University of Cuyo (under Maestro Roberto Ubay).  Though committed to his studies in classical music, Cafici discovered his expressive creativity in popular music and decided to form his own heavy metal band, Exegesis in 1997. From then on, Cafici’s career took off: session keyboardist, pianist, music producer, arranger and music director for various music artists. He has performed throughout Argentina, in Cordoba, San Juan, San Luis, and Buenos Aires and also in Chile.  He has been a member of no fewer than 20 different bands and music groups, from hard rock, ska rock, and pop to latino, bossa nova, folkloric, and classical.  He has shared the stage with many well-known Latin American musicians, such as Pocho Sosa, Jorge Sosa, Alfredo Caseros, Eduardo Pinto, Sebastián Narváez, Fredy Vidal, Oscar Puebla, among many others. Cafici’s latest passion is working out of his own studio, producing music for own label, Shark Records, and performing in his own electronica-fusion band, the Pablo Cafici Shark Band   Pablo Jofré Romarión, bandoneón  Pablo began his musical studies when he was only 15 years old.  He studied piano, composition, harmony and counterpoint over the next four years at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, before deciding to dedicate his musical talents solely to the bandoneon.  With the generous support of Juan Victoria Auditorium of San Juan, Argentina, he continued his bandoneon studies through 2006.  In 2004, he won a scholarship to study under bandoneón master, Daniel Binelli which led to another invitation to study with bandoneon master, Julio Pane.   In 2005, Pablo formed El Ángel Trio, with whom he performed at the Embassy of Ecuador in Buenos Aires, the Juan Vitctoria Auditorium in San Juan, Argentina, and the Prensa Hall in Bariloche, Argentina.  His crowning moment in 2005 was the opportunity to play at the world famous Café Tortoni in Buenos Aires, along with some of the most renowned tango musicians in the world.