Agustín Cerrotti Kolaric

Real name: Cerrotti Kolaric, Agustín
Pianist, composer, conductor and educator
(17 January 1977 - )
Place of birth:
Lanús (Buenos Aires) Argentina
By
Federico García Blaya

t a very young age he settled in the district of Almirante Brown. He began his studies at the Conservatorio Julián Aguirre, where he had Cayetano Capici and Mónica Zubczuk as teachers, with a classical academic repertoire. He studied singing and conducting at the Conservatorio Nacional.

In quite a short time he managed to link his two passions, piano and singing, and he started to accompany different operatic singers, while he was beginning, at an early age, to be interested in tango. He backed up different singers of the genre. At the same time, he worked as teacher in the music field at several schools of the Greater Buenos Aires.

He was appointed section leader of the Coro Polifónico (Polyphonic Choir) of the Conservatorio Julián Aguirre and, as well, appointed as Member of the Consejo Académico (C.A.I.) of that institution.

He studied tango repertoire with different piano teachers, among which Juan Trepiana and Julio Dávila stand out. After playing in several groups of the genre, he decided to put together the El Cruce, along with Carolina Pocosgnich (flute), Gustavo Pérez (guitar), Mariana Novoa (vocals) and later Roberto Recalde (cello) was included. With the El Cruce they appeared in a great number of venues.

Kolaric decided to write his first tango piece and to enlarge his ensemble. In September 2007 the groups El Cruce? and Seda y percal merged, giving birth to El Reyunte, a group which has had a prevailing role in the development of young tango groups in the Greater Buenos Aires area.

Its personnel were the players: Kolaric (piano and leadership), Gustavo Pérez (guitar), Carolina Pocosgnich (flute), Matías Moreira, Paola Gargiulo and Cristian Izumigawa (violins), Mariana Novoa, Gastón Ruíz and Marcelo Costa (vocals) and Fernanda Carrizo and Sergio Meroi (dancers).

El Reyunte played throughout the country, and shared the bill with Juanjo Domínguez, Julio Dávila, Pablo Agri, Abel Córdoba, Rubén Améndola, Nelly Vázquez, among others.

Soon thereafter, El Reyunte became the Orquesta Juvenil de Tango del Municipio de Almirante Brown. It is an orchestra comprised by 18 members that belong to the district, and are between 14 and 30 years old. Almirante Brown was the first district in supporting and encouraging a group with such features.

Besides the above players, the following performed in the group: Basilio Fernández and Costanza Besson (bandoneons), Carolina Mior, Daniela Bernat and Cecilia Giles (violins), Joaquín Toledo (cello) and Matías D’Amico (double bass).

In 2009, together with several artists of the area, he created the art movement Acción Cultural Brown in which he was its president between 2011 and 2015. This association produced the season Tango del siglo, which in 2014 was staged at the La Casa Espacio de Debate y Cultura de Claypole. Among other examples of young tango, the Cuarteto Coviello, Quasimodo Trío and Antiescéptico were part of that season.

With the orchestra of Almirante Brown he appeared at the most renowned venues of the genre: Confitería La Ideal, Academia Nacional del Tango, Academia Porteña del Lunfardo, Esquina Homero Manzi, Radio El Mundo, Argentinísima Satelital, Legislatura Porteña, Universidad Nacional de Lanús, Casa de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Cancillería Argentina, Teatro Goñi, among others.

They also appeared in a great number of encounters and festivals in the southern area of the Greater Buenos Aires and all over the country, like the Festival Homenaje a Celedonio Flores, in the city of Claypole, where the poet lived; the Festival de Tango de Almirante Brown, alongside Horacio Ferrer, Fabián Bertero and Juan Trepiana (2011); Ciclo Cultural 2008 in Adrogué, along with Maximiliano Guerra; Festival de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (2009), along with León Gieco; Homenaje a Nelly Vázquez along with Oscar Dalo and Julio Dávila; homage to Juanjo Domínguez, along with Pablo Agri, where he introduced his arrangement “De Berlín a Buenos Aires” for orchestra; opening of the Festival Juvenil de Tango, alongside the Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro; milonga opening of the Cumbre Mundial de Tango in Zárate (2014); Homage to Astor Piazzolla alongside the Orquesta Municipal de Tango de Mar del Plata conducted by Julio Dávila; Cumbre Orquestal en San Martín alongside the Víctor Lavallen Sextet and the Big Band tango led by Fabián Bertero; Concierto Homenaje for the Aníbal Troilo’s 100th anniversary alongside Raúl Garello, José Colángelo, Ernesto Baffa and Nelly Vázquez; and many more.

He recorded and was curator of the album El Tango en Almirante Brown, in which the orchestra plays a rendition of Alfredo de Angelis’s “Pastora”, along with Marcelo Costa and Ariel Ardit.

Between 2011 and 2012 he led the group La Quintana Tango Show, accompanying Rubén Améndola, Fianma Albieri, Mariana Novoa, Abel Córdoba, among others.

He made tours of Brazil and Las Grutas (province of Río Negro), along with the Claudia Armani’s show, directed by Nicolás Fontana, in which they appeared along with Abel Pintos.

He was appointed Coordinator of Cultural Programs in the municipality of Almirante Brown. A position he held until 2011. Later he took over the post of Coordinator of Music and Dance until April 2015, when he resigned. Since 2016 he has been Coordinator of Arts of the municipality.

In 2011, with Pablo Yanis, Andrea Censabella, Gustavo Pérez, Gustavo Yanischevski and Marcos Besada, he created the group Derrape, with which they were consecrated as winners in the category Conjunto Instrumental (Instrumental group) at the Festival de Cosquín 2015 and they released their first album La murra in 2016, with great artists as guests and they made tours throughout the country.

Now he continues his activity as Director de la Orquesta Municipal de Tango, and he is recording his second album that includes the piece “A Raúl” dedicated to the painter Raúl Soldi.

Furthermore, he takes part in the recording of his project Lautaro Pavón Ensamble Desgenerado, in which he is focused with a septet in new renderings of Argentine music, tango, folk songs and pieces by Alberto Ginastera and Carlos Guastavino.