Phi Lee Lam is an experimental film artist, tango dancer and organizer who facilitates experiences at the intersection of artistic, somatic, civic, and reflective engagement. She is an immigrant from Singapore who has travelled and lived with sustainable-intentional communities around the globe including Argentina where she first encountered tango danced by two women switching roles. Though the experience inspired her interrogation of tango traditions in culture and form, her biggest influence comes from the Judson Dance Theater and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.

In 2015, she co-founded the Queer Tango Club, later the Queer Tango Collective, Inc. where she provided safe spaces for women and LGBTQIA+ dancers; facilitated roundtable discussions and seminars; collaborated with global artists, collectives, and organizers in increasing access to non-gendered/open-role/all-inclusive tango classes; and raised awareness of queer tango dancers by organizing public performances.

She is deeply grateful to have studied with female teachers who have empowered her to redefine the dance roles, and these days, she is invigorated by the possibilities of a new tango culture that is driven by women. In her workshops, she is interested in a more humanistic and embodied approach to transmitting tango. As a performer she is interested in subverting the grand narrative of tango, and challenging assumptions of tango viewership.

Listen to an interview with Phi Lee.

Praised for her “soulful bandoneon” (Washington Classical Review), Heyni Solera is a sought after bandoneonist in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In 2019, Solera has launched her career on the international stage with her orchestra and chamber music performances in Argentina and Australia, and continues to collaborate with prominent musicians in the tango music scene.

Heyni currently actively performs in the Washington, D.C. area with the Da Capo Tango Orchestra, and her cello and bandoneon duo, Arco & Aire. Also a music scholar, she holds a Master of Music in Ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland. Her research explored the role of gesture theory in explaining how tango and bandoneon can be taught via tango festivals.

Heyni began her bandoneon studies in 2015 with Santiago Segret. In 2019, she was able to fully immerse herself in tango and bandoneon during her time in Buenos Aires, where she continued her bandoneon studies with Segret and renowned bandoneonist Ramiro Boero. During this time, she also had the privilege of performing with several of Argentina’s most prominent educational tango orchestras, such as the Orquesta de Tango de la UNA, Orquesta Escuela Orlando Goñi, Orquesta de Tango del Conservatorio Superior de Musica Manuel de Falla, and Ensemble de Tango de la UNSAM under the direction of Ariel Pirotti, Julian Peralta, Adrian Enriquez, and Ramiro Gallo, respectively.

Past projects include playing in the orchestra of the highly praised IN Series production of Le Cabaret de Carmen at Source Theatre in Washington, D.C. and at Baltimore Theatre Project in Baltimore, Maryland. During the pandemic, Heyni has produced two mini-series, Today’s Tango with Heyni and Discovering Troilo, performed in many virtual concerts, and recorded an EP with Arco & Aire, which is to be released 2021.

A native of Buffalo, NY, Teagan Faran is a multidisciplinary musician focused on enacting social change through the arts. She has recorded with the Buffalo Tango Orkestra, La Martino Orquesta Típica, and had compositions featured at the NYSSMA Conference and the Persis Vehar Competition for Excellence. Faran has recently served as concertmaster of the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and the Ann Arbor Camerata and was a member of the Orquesta Escuela de Emilio Balcarce.

As a soloist, Faran has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra (including a performance in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy), the Ann Arbor Camerata, the Williamsville East Symphonic Orchestra, and the University of Vermont Symphony. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Faran moved to Buenos Aires on a Fulbright grant. Faran was also a Turn The Spotlight Fellow, receiving their inaugural Hedwig Holbrook Prize. An avid educator, Faran has worked with the University Musical Society, the Kennedy Center, and the Sa’Oaxaca Music Festival to increase music accessibility. She is currently attending the Manhattan School of Music, pursuing a Masters in Contemporary Performance.

Ms. Lee is a classically trained pianist and obtained a Master’s degree in Music, Piano performance, from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has worked with many bay area opera companies, choruses, and K-8 schools in the bay area. She is also a trained tango pianist from La Orquesta Escuela de Tango Emilio Balcarce, the most prestigious tango orchestra school in Buenos Aires, where she studied and performed with living tango maestros such as Víctor Lavallén, Jose Pepe Colangelo, Osvaldo Piro, Roberto Alvarez,
Daniel Binelli, Mauricio Marceli, Nicolas Ledesma, Pablo Estigarribia, and Cristian Asato, among others.

One of the concerts at Teatro San Martin in Buenos Aires was sold out and aired live on national radio 2x4 & TV Publica Argentina. Since moving back from Argentina, she has been performing and touring the U.S. and South Korea. She was invited to perform at San
Francisco Int’l Arts Festival 2020 & 2021 with Bandoneonist Hyeni Solera as a Duo, Las Almas. Her ongoing project is not only performing traditional and contemporary tango music, but also producing her own contemporary tango music.

She is currently a pianist of the international all-woman, diversity-affirming tango orchestra, “Solidaridad” and also runs Golden Gate Int’l Artists to exposure for the performing artists of diverse cultures, especially in the fields of non-popular music such as Argentine Tango, and musicians do not receive sufficient support unless they have established a name for themselves already. She is currently serving on the Board of the non-profit organization Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC), San Francisco, which serves the local community of music teachers and students.