Award-winning conductor Marco Real-d’Arbelles serves as Associate Artistic Director of the Bach Society of Minnesota and creator of "Outside the Box" series. He recently conducted sold out performances of The Cradle Will Rock with Minneapolis-based An Opera Theatre. He is also Music Director for Bold North Baroque Opera and Opera on the Lake. Born in Nicaragua, raised in Miami, where he made his debut, he has since worked with operas and orchestras in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet is a Minneapolis-based ensemble dedicated to contemporary and original tango music. The group is an institution in the Twin Cities with regular performances in local concert venues, milongas (tango social dances), and regional festivals. CGTQ released their debut album The Conservatory in 2023, establishing an original recorded voice in the tango community and making the scores freely available. The ensemble has served as faculty resident ensemble for Tango Sin Fin at Reed College, and members have studied with legendary Argentine tango artists Ignacio Varchausky, Diego Schissi, Julian Peralta, Exequiel Mantega, Pablo Jaurena, Paulina Fain, Guillermo Rubino, and more.

Bandoneonist and composer Charles Gorczynski works in contemporary tango and music production. He is the director of Minneapolis-based Twin Cities Tango Collective, the bandleader of Redwood Tango Ensemble and Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet, and has worked as bandoneonist for dozens of tango projects including Mariano Barreiro Tango Trio, Alejandro Ziegler Cuarteto, Maldito Tango Duo, Maxi Larrea Trio, and Los Tangueros Del Oeste. He has toured North America and Europe extensively to support original tango music releases, most recently releasing the album “We Become The Night Sky” recorded by 12-piece tango ensemble based in San Francisco. As a life-long producer, Charles is a Latin Grammy-nominated mixing engineer and owner of the Minneapolis-based studio/label Caverns, focused on producing and releasing high quality and future-driven new tango work.

Violinist Devan Moran is a founding member of Twin Cities Tango Collective, Orquesta Tipica Kingfield, and Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet. He has studied tango with Guillermo Rubino (Diego Schissi Quinteto, Sur Del Sur), offered workshops to local violinists interested in the style, and served as lead violinist for the resident ensemble of Tango Sin Fin at Reed College. Devan holds a BM from North Park University in Chicago, and studied with the assistant concertmaster and principal violist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has also studied with Young-Nam Kim in Minnesota and Lina Bahn at the University of Colorado Boulder. Devan also performs with the Laurels String Quartet and 10th Wave Chamber Music Collective.

Alexander Woods is a pianist and music teacher living in the Twin Cities, MN. He strives to

maintain an innovative perspective in his performances, seeking out new and old works from diverse genres and composers. Woods is a member of Orquesta Típica Kingfield and the

Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet and has worked with Exequiel Mantega and Pablo Jaurena. He is a Lecturer of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, holds additional positions at Central Presbyterian Church (St. Paul) and Voices of Hope Prison Music Initiative, and has spent summers as a staff pianist at Borromeo Music Festival (Altdorf, Switzerland), International Cello Institute (Northfield, MN), and St. Croix Valley Opera Summer Vocal Institute (Hudson, WI). Woods has also played with the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, Dakota Valley Symphony & Chorus, South Metro Chorale, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral Orchestra

Bassist Sarah Lahasky (BM in Double Bass Performance, Shenandoah Conservatory) performs tango with the Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet, Orquesta Típica Kingfield, and Solidaridad Tango. Sarah has studied tango bass style with Pablo Aslán, Sergio Rivas, Horacio Cabarcos, Ignacio Varchausky, and Juan Pablo Navarro. Sarah has served on the faculties of the Kansas City Bass Workshop, Austin Bass Workshop, and Bass Coalition Summer Workshop. She holds an MM and PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Texas at Austin. An active music scholar, Sarah is the current editor of the International Society of Bassist’s peer-reviewed journal, Online Journal of Bass Research and former Assistant Editor of Latin American Music Review. In addition to playing bass, Sarah is an Assistant Professor of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, where she teaches courses in musicology and ethnomusicology.

Brazilian recorder player Cléa Galhano is an internationally renowned performer of early, contemporary, and Brazilian music. She has performed in North America, South America and Europe as a chamber musician, collaborating with recorder player Marion Verbruggen, Jacques Ogg, Belladonna Baroque Quartet and Kingsbury Ensemble. As a soloist, Galhano has worked with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, Musical Offering and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. She studied in Brazil at Faculdade Santa Marcelina, the Royal Conservatory (The Hague), and the New England Conservatory of Music as a Fulbright Scholar. She is Music Director of the Recorder Orchestra of the Midwest and recently received the McKnight fellowship award, MSAB Cultural collaborative and MSAB Arts Initiative. Galhano is a faculty member at Macalester College and Adjunct Lecturer in Music, Recorder at HPI, Jacobs School of Music, IU.

Charles Asch performs as a baroque cellist throughout Minnesota with ensembles including Bach Society of MN, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, and Bach Roots Festival. He has also performed solo cello and chamber music recitals through the Twin Cities Early Music Festival, where he also got his training on baroque cello from Jaap ter Linden. He obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, as well as his Master of Music degree from Juilliard. His undergraduate studies were completed at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, in both German studies and Music Performance.

Lutenist Phillip Rukavina performs as a lute and vihuela soloist and as a continuo lutenist. He has appeared at many major Early Music festivals, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival (2013) and the Boston Early Music Festival (2015). Phillip performed as a soloist at the European Lute Festival in Füssen, Germany (2017) and at the Lute Society of America's WestFest in Canada. He has performed with many prominent ensembles, including the Newberry Consort, the Texas Early Music Project, the Bach Society MN and with renowned sopranos Emma Kirkby and Ellen Hargis.

A harpsichordist and composer, Asako Hirabayashi's first recording on Albany Label, whose program is entirely composed and played by herself, was selected as one of the top ten albums of the year 2018 by the Global Music Awards and received 7 favorable reviews internationally. She won two McKnight Fellowships, Jerome Fund for New Music by American Composers Forum, Schubert Club Composer Award, Opera America’s Discovery Grant, MNiatures award by MN Opera and several first prizes in Alienor International Harpsichord Composition Competition. Her live performance of own composition was featured in Performance Today. She holds a DMA from the Juilliard School

J and Rachel have been partners in life and in tango since 2016. Both have been partner dancing since college, and both thoroughly explored other social dances such as lindy hop and salsa. Together, they bring a wealth of experience in various types of dance, music, and education. Combined, J and Rachel have been teaching tango as their livelihood and calling for 34 years. After several years of teaching tango in the D.C. area and teaching tango musicality online, they founded the Fuego Tango Club in the Twin Cities in early 2024, and it has been thriving ever since!

J and Rachel believe Argentine tango is about self-discovery, self-expression, community, and co-creativity. It’s a journey that feeds the curiosity of the mind and the desires of the heart. It takes us to new places and gifts us with friends and family. The music encourages dancers to go deeper than the steps — to focus less on what to do, and more on how we feel... together. Tango is a dance that requires trust, true partnership & dedication, but its rewards are well worth the investment. For us, it is the ultimate dance of the soul.

Sabine Ibes started Argentine Tango in 2003 after she was captured by the fluid movements of magical music. Tango has pushed her life in directions that she could not have imagined. She was awarded a study grant by MRAC 3 years in a row and studied tango in Buenos Aires. She has taught in Buenos Aires at the renowned tango congress: CITA. Sabine has performed with Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Minneapolis, in “Maria de Buenos Aires”. choreographed and performed with the James Sewell Ballet Company in ” A Sound Embrace” at the Cowles Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to her travels, she has studied with many masters of Argentine Tango. She also has a deep interest in learning and teaching techniques, and a person’s ability to process information through body movement, control, and expression.