Pablo Ziegler

Pianist Pablo Ziegler stands among the leading protégés of Astor Piazzolla. He launched his concert career performing classical repertoire while still a teenager, soon afterward discovering Dixieland jazz and fusing the two idioms inside the Pablo Ziegler Trio through jazz-inflected treatments of classical works.

Following the trio years, he received an invitation in 1978 to join Astor Piazzolla's New Tango Quintet, remaining with the ensemble for more than ten years of performances and recordings. During the same period he appeared alongside Italian vocalist Milva on a tribute to Maria Callas at the Arena de Verona and worked with American vibes player Gary Burton.

Throughout the 1980s Ziegler continued performing with Piazzolla on releases such as New Tango and Astor Piazzolla: The Central Park Concert. After Piazzolla's death in 1992, he established the Quintet for New Tango, which toured internationally and issued a self-titled album in 1999; he also partnered with Emanuel Ax and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on projects highlighting Piazzolla's compositions. Beginning in 2000, extensive solo engagements with orchestras across Europe, Asia, and South America—particularly Argentina—occupied much of his schedule. He recorded Quintet for New Tango for BMG that year and, two years later, released Bajo Cero: Duo for Tango on Enja with guitarist Quique Sinesi and guest bandoneonist Walter Castro. In 2007 the live album Tango & All That Jazz appeared, featuring a new quintet that included vibraphonist Stefon Harris as a guest.

Orchestral commitments delayed further studio work until 2013, when Ziegler joined the Zoho label. His first release for the imprint, Amsterdam Meets New Tango, presented him as soloist with the Metropole Orkest. Two years afterward another duet project with Sinesi, again featuring Castro, yielded Desperate Dance on Enja's Yellowbird imprint. Returning to Zoho, he issued Sax to Tango in 2016 with saxophonist Julio Botti, then the all-Piazzolla program Tango Nuevo in 2017 alongside American classical pianist Christopher O'Riley, host of the From the Top podcast.