Layout by CoolChaser
Rodrigo G Pahlen is an all-round musician, composer and pianist born in Zürich in 1976. Rodrigo inherits his vocation and love for music from his grandfather, Kurt Pahlen, and his great-grandfather, Richard Pahle, both renown Austrian musicians and piano players. Richard Pahlen was a piano player for Gustav Mahler and Kurt, are Richard Strauss disciples.
In 1982 he begins classic guitar studies in Geneva, with Antoine Vermael. Six years later he moves to Montevideo, Uruguay, home country of his parents. He will continue his studies there while he gets in touch and experiments with different south american rythms such as Tango and Candombe. Among others, some of his teachers were: Pablo Rila (piano), Esteban Klisich (harmony), the famous Héctor Tossar, considered by Hector Villalobos to be his favorite Latin American composer.
At the age of twenty, he traveled to France to continue his classical studies. He studied composition and orchestration in the Clermont-Ferrand conservatory with the French composer Gillesl Raynal. He completed his studies of jazz piano with Serge Delette (disciple of Michele Petrucciani).
Barely 30 years of age and he has already performed and recorded with some of the best muscians from Uruguay, Argentina, New York and Europe. He has edited two cds: Orquestango with the Philharmonic of Montevideo with his original composition 'Conversaciones con Schopenhauer' together with Raul Jaurena(bandoneon) recent winner Grammy Award 2007. He also recorded a live concert DVD with Badal Roy, a famous tabla player discovered by John Mac Lauglhin and Miles Davis.
A peak in his career was when he released a solo album with the prestigious record label New Mood Jazz with a lot of guest musicians from New York, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. From all the musicians who have worked with Rodrigo some of the most notorious are; Badal Roy, Mino Cinelu, Hernan Romero, Horacio Fumero, Antonio Serrano, Paquito de Rivera, Raul Jaurena, the Philharmonic from Montevideo, Hugo Fatorusso, Pablo Soma,David Seleman, Mario Rodriguez, Marcelo Torres, Sean Carpio, the hermanos Ibarburus and among others.
About the Mino Cinelu / Rodrigo Pahlen / Hernan Romero project
The Mino Cinelu/Rodrigo G Pahlen/Hernan Romero (dvd) project is remarkable and stands out because of the multiplicity of styles. Flamenco, Jazz, Classical Music and various “Rio Platense†rhythm’s melt together giving it a unique and unequalled flavour. The Fatorruso brothers are the special guests, they are legendary for those who know the band ‘OPA’ with Hermeto Pascoal y Airto Moreira.
In 2009 Rodrigo Gonzalez Pahlen is working on the recording of his new album together with outstanding musicians like Antonio Serrano ( also known from his collaboration with Paco de Lucia amongst others), Amit Chatterjee ( known from his collaboration with The Joe Zawinul Sindicate) and Badal Roy.