The Argentine musician, director and composer Gerardo Gardelin He began his training at the age of five, when his mother sat him in front of the family piano and discovered in him a voracious curiosity for sound. At twelve he was already a professor at the Debussy Conservatory, but far from settling, he continued exploring teachers, techniques and languages to expand his horizon. From classical music he moved on to symphonic rock and, at just eighteen years old, he joined the Channel 9 orchestra, where he played alongside established figures, an experience that marked the beginning of an uninterrupted and successful career.
He directed great musical comedies on the Buenos Aires billboard, such as “Chicago”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Young Frankenstein”, “The Producers”, “Hairspray”, “Sweet Charity”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Aplausos”, “Tanguera” and “Mamma mia”, among others. In Madrid he was director and musical arranger of “Gipsy”, directed by Antonio Banderas, and has just premiered “Oliver Twist” at the La Latina theatre, located in the heart of the Madrid capital.
He worked with artists of very diverse genres, being a pianist for performers such as Valeria Lynch, Eladia Blazquez, Sergio Denis, Nacha Guevara, Soledad and Estela Raval, among other greats of popular music. He also consolidated a prolific symphonic work, known in Argentina, Germany and Spain, which includes suites for orchestra, symphonic poems and concertos for various soloists and orchestras.
He also composed music for different plays such as “Yo, Alfonsina”, “La cradle vacant” and “Cabo Verde”. His works include television shows and original music for films such as “Inseparables,” “Más respect que soy tu madre” and “Corazón delator.” He was awarded numerous times by the ACE, Hugo, Trinidad Guevara, Florencio Sánchez and Konex awards.
As if that were not enough, he collaborated with our compatriot Bizarrap in the orchestration of the BZRP Music Session #50, where Duki also participated, and he conducted the José de San Martín National Youth Symphony Orchestra, invited to record the orchestral arrangements that sound in the instrumental of the song by one of the most successful music producers today.
Today he divides his time between Europe and Buenos Aires, always faithful to the premise that has accompanied him since childhood: study, read, listen and work rigorously. “Music,” he says, “is a craft that is honored every day.”
In dialogue with NOTICIAS, he reviews a career that took him from Barracas to the biggest musicals in the country, and from there to the land that adopted him as one of its most versatile directors.
News: Do you remember your first approach to the piano?
Gerardo Gardelin: Completely. I was five years old. My dad worked at the old Channel 13, he had met my mom in Mar del Plata and they came to live in Buenos Aires. She was born in Río Gallegos, she played a little and my grandmother decided to bring the piano overland when they moved. As soon as I saw it I felt an immediate fascination. My mother taught me the first notes and, seeing my interest, took me to a neighborhood teacher associated with the Debussy Conservatory. At twelve I had already graduated as a senior theory professor.
News: Was there a before and after in your training?
Gardelin: Yes. When we moved to Barracas, I left the conservatory because I was bored. My mother discovered Norma Silvestre, who worked the “Scaramuzza technique” (named after the pianist Vicente Scaramuzza). At fifteen I started playing again and it completely changed my way of playing in terms of relaxation, posture, and sound. It was a total transformation.
News: How did popular music appear?
Gardelin: For my brother. I was strictly classical. He made me listen to symphonic rock with Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I discovered another universe. I started exploring equipment, textures, effects. That was the first crack in the academic world.
News: His professional entry was almost cinematic.
Gardelin: Yes, I was starting with a band in Lomas de Zamora and my mother told me that she had an audition for the Channel 9 orchestra. They gave me a score at first sight. When I finished, they told me: “On Monday you will record.” I was 18 and fell into a studio surrounded by the best musicians in the country. From then on I worked non-stop on television, tours, night shifts in studios, eternal trips. It was a real and brutal school.
News: He collaborated with figures of all genres. Which marked you the most?
Gardelin: Without a doubt, Eladia Blázquez. After the death of Oscar Cardozo Ocampo she asked me to be her pianist. We had a very deep artistic affinity. Working with her was a permanent master’s degree due to her sensitivity, craftsmanship, and ethics. For me it was a vital alliance.
News: He lived through the great era of musicals in Argentina. However, one day he left. What triggered that move to Spain?
Gardelin: They had offered it to me before but I did not accept because my children were very young. In 2022, after the pandemic, “Los Puentes de Madison” emerged, produced by Gustavo Yankelevich, directed by Alberto Negrin and starring Gerónimo Rauch. I chatted with my family and they told me: “It’s now.” This is how my Spanish period began, which until now has been very fruitful.
News: Do you have European nationality?
Gardelin: Through my father came Italian nationality for me and my eldest son. Later I was able to do it with my youngest son and my wife is processing hers. (He is married to the psychologist Alejandra Simoes and has two children, Teo and Tobías).
News: How was the bond with Antonio Banderas?
Gardelin: Very natural. I was finishing the performances of “Pretty Woman” and I found out that they were going to do “Gypsy”. I knew that Banderas had his own musical director, but I wrote to him anyway. He was interested that I also composed symphonic music. One day the pianist was missing for an audition in Madrid and they called me urgently. I arrived, played, and in the end they offered me to be the second musical director for the season. Banderas is generous, warm. I learned a lot from his almost obsessive rigor at work.
News: Do you have favorite musicals among all the ones you directed?
Gardelin: “Chicago”, for being the first with American equipment and “The Phantom of the Opera”, for its demand and technical perfection. They are two personal milestones that I treasure.
News: If you had to stay with two genres and two singers?
Gardelin: Classical music and jazz, and Tony Bennett and Liza Minnelli.
News: In parallel he developed an important symphonic work. What triggers the composition?
Gardelin: A spark, a theme, an image, a sound. Sometimes an interval, a rhythm, appears without warning. Then I apply everything technical. But the seed is emotional and random. I already have large symphonic works and more than forty chamber works, all premiered. And I accept commissions if they commit to playing them because I need the work to live.
News: Are you also continuing with teaching?
Gardelin: Yes. During the pandemic I gave an orchestration and arranging seminar at the Piazzolla Conservatory. Marina Calzado, its director, invited me and my objective was to unite the classical academic world with the contemporary view of arrangement and popular music. I believe that musical understanding should be transversal, not compartmentalized.
News: Foreign producers frequently choose Argentine artists. This is the case of Omar Calicchio, Silvia Luchetti, Guido Balzaretti and many more. Why do I think they attract attention?
Gardelin: Well, because we are versatile, intense and resilient. We are used to working with little, solving on the fly, improvising without being noticed. We have a very marked expressive passion, probably due to our cultural mix. And that in Europe is surprising. We are direct, warm, forceful.
News: What happens to you when you return to the country?
Gardelin: I feel the immediate emotional closeness because there are hugs, spontaneous invitations, zero protocols. You meet someone and have a coffee, or they invite you to eat at their house. We kiss and that doesn’t exist outside. But I am also struck by the urban chaos I see lately.
News: Why do you say it?
Gardelin: It’s just that you just walk a little and it seems that the pedestrian has no rights, traffic is a battle. But it also strikes me that there is an increasing presence of people living on the streets. And that is very painful.
News: Is our cultural offer still attracting attention?
Gardelin: Culturally, we continue to be a lighthouse in every sense. Both in theater, music or experimentation. Because two million things happen here and we have a lot of great theater, with very good actors. Maybe it also contributes that we have such a psychoanalyzed society. Because ultimately theater is nothing more than the reflection of the conflicts brought to the stage. On a stage people mirror themselves and see themselves reflected.
News: What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started in conducting or composing?
Gardelin: Study deeply. Read sheet music, understand tradition, know all genres. And touch, listen, work. Don’t look for shortcuts because nothing replaces solid training. Music is a craft and an art; If you don’t master the craft, the art doesn’t sustain itself.
