Centola Tango Quartet

About the Artists

Maria Centola, Piano

Maria Centola holds a B.A. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the Gnessin’s Academy of Music in Moscow, Russia and G.P.D. and M.Mus. degrees in Piano Performance and Chamber Music Performance from the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford. She has served on the faculty of Connecticut College, The Hartt School of Music, and Miss Porter's School.

As a performer, Maria has appeared in concerts and international festivals performing classical, jazz and Latin music throughout the United States, Russia, Italy, Spain and Canary Islands. She plays piano, organ, accompanies vocalists and instrumentalists, directs musicals, and conducts choirs and chamber orchestras. Most recently she participated in a prestigious Stowe Tango Music Festival and performed alongside Grammy recipients specializing in Argentine Tango Music.

Maria is the Artistic Director of Connecticut’s Argentine Tango Ensemble InfiniTango, vocal coach and accompanist at UConn and Music Director at Wapping Community Church in South Windsor, CT.

Rodolfo Marcelo Zanetti, Bandoneon

Rodolfo was born in Mendoza, Argentina and studied bandoneón with Jorge Puebla and Alberto Hilario Iribarne, and piano with Monica Rizzo and Roberto Urbay at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza. While still a teenager, Rodolfo joined the Orquesta Tipica Mancifesta and later, played with Tango & Punto, an ensemble from Mendoza. With the support of the Astor Piazzolla Foundation, in 2002, he was named the musical director of Piazzolla’s “operita”, Maria de Buenos Aires, performed in Mendoza. In 2004, he joined the Bandó quintet, made up of musicians from Mendoza. A year later they came to the U.S. where their performances in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. were met with enthusiastic acclaim. In December 2013, the Embassy of Argentina invited Rodolfo to perform at the Organization of American States for a celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Recovery of Democracy in the Republic of Argentina, where he played with PASO and tango singer Maria Volonte. With PASO, he has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Lincoln Theater, and the George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium. He currently resides in New York City, where he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and with his quartet at many other tango events in the Big Apple.

Katie Smirnova, Violin

Classically trained violinist Katie Smirnova, was introduced to the world of Argentine tango at the Stowe Tango Music Festival in 2015. Since then, it became her passion to further explore and learn this exquisite style, honing stylistic and technical elements from violin masters Pablo Agri and Humberto Ridolfi. She has also enjoyed coaching and performing alongside 2018 Grammy Award Winner and one of the last bandoneonists of the Osvaldo Pugliese Orchestra, Hector Del Curto, and the members of the Hector Del Curto Quintet. Aside from her tango endeavors, Ms. Smirnova is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Rushmore Music Festival, a non-profit organization that holds an annual summer chamber music concert series and a three-week intensive solo & chamber music program for young musicians in the Black Hills. She has received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance from the Stony Brook University under the mentorship of Hagai Shaham and Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet. Previously, she received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, and was a graduate of the Juilliard Pre-College program. As a performer, Ms. Smirnova has enjoyed collaborating with various arts organizations such as the Moscow Ballet, Bel Cantanti Opera Company, Stony Brook Chamber Ensemble, Groupmuse, San Diego Ballet, and the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, among others. An avid teacher, Ms. Smirnova currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Black Hills State University, Sheridan College, as well as maintaining a private teaching studio. She enjoys traveling across the United States for guest masterclasses and workshops, and, of course, to perform tango with other fantastic musicians!

Dennis Caravakis, Double Bass

Dennis Caravakis graduated from the Peabody Conservatory in 2012, where he studied with Paul Johnson and continued his studies in Los Angeles, working with David Allen Moore of the University of Southern California. Caravakis performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony during the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons and is currently a member of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and the Sarasota Opera.