Gustavo Casenave

Praised by the New York Times as "... exuberant, virtuosic performance. . . " pianist and composer Gustavo Casenave is a 2019 Latin GRAMMY® Award Winner with five Latin Grammy nominations under his name. Born in Uruguay and based in New York since 1997, he has been awarded with two Gold Medals at the Global Music Awards along with several other national and internationals awards including: New Music USA, Con Edison Composers Residency Award , QCA Art Fund Awardee/ New Works Grant and "Belgian Artistic Promotion" at Europe Jazz Contest 1999. With vast discography comprised of more than 30 albums as a band leader, he has been touring worldwide since 1996, performing, recording and collaborating with an eclectic selection of internationally acclaimed artists including: Yoyo Ma, John Patitucci, Paquito D’ Rivera, Bette Midler, Neil Sedaka, Eddie Gomez, Manolo Badrena, Deepak Chopra, Nick Danielson, Mark Egan, Robert Duvall, Jane Ira Bloom, Nestor Torres and John Benitez among many others. Between his Jazz, Tango and Contemporary Classical music works, Casenave creates a unique musical world, and has appeared in some of the most distinguished venues worldwide, including Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Taiwan National Theater and more.

Being one of the most in demand tango pianists and composers in the US, he directed numerous tango shows including Tango Fire, Forever Tango, Tango Connection, Tango Lovers, Tango Noir and Tango Casenave. He performs and collaborates with today’s most prominent tango artists that belonged to some of the most iconic tango orchestras and ensembles: Astor Piazzolla’s group, Osvaldo Pugliese’s Orchestra and Anibal Troilo’s orchestra including: Hector Del Curto, Victor Lavallen, Jose “Pepe” Colangelo, Julio Pane and Horacio Cabarcos among others.

As an educator, he is a former Jazz Department Director at the Harbor Conservatory (NYC) and has taught and given master classes at some of the most distinguished conservatories and universities including: The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Columbia University, Yale, Harvard, Curtis and Oberlin Conservatory. He also received commissions from the 12 cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic (2001), and from Yo-Yo Ma (2011).

Casenave has been a Steinway Artist since 2014.