Artistic Director

Adrián Iaies

He was born in Buenos Aires in 1960. He is a pianist, composer, arranger and producer. In 2008, he was honored with the appointment as Artistic Director of the Festival Internacional Buenos Aires Jazz, created by the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires City. This was the corollary of a thirty-year-long career, during which his prolific work and peculiar approach to tango and other forms of Argentine popular music, from a clear jazz aesthetic, earned him high praise in Argentina and abroad.

He received three Grammy nominations for his albums Las tardecitas de Minton’s (2000), Tango reflections (2002) and Las cosas tienen movimiento (2003). He won the Clarín Award for Best Jazz Musician in 2002. He got the Konex Platinum Award for his artistic work (1995-2005). The DownBeat Magazine (U.S.), the most popular jazz magazine in the world, listed him as one of the rising stars in its critics poll (2003).

He has performed more than 200 concerts around the world, notably including his three-night solo piano recitals at the Lincoln Center in New York (2002); the San Sebastian (2002), Madrid and Barcelona (2004, 2005, & 2007) Jazz Festivals; the Oslo World Music Festival (2005); the Vancouver Fest (2008); a concert at the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Opera; a recent tour around Canada, and performances in over twelve countries.

He has shared the stage with artists as renowned as Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Ron Carter, Chano Domínguez, Bebo Valdés and Toots Thielemans, among others. He recorded fifteen albums as a leader, some of which have been distributed in the United States and Europe. Also, he has composed the soundtrack for several movies.

Iaies has had an intensive and varied career as a teacher for 25 years. Parallel to his artistic activity, and before he was named Artistic Director of the Festival, he created and directed S’Jazz, a record label subsidiary of EMI-Odeon, dedicated to promoting and releasing music by local jazz artists.