Utopia Encuentro 2024: Durham Edition No. 2 – The DJ’s

Tango Utopia is pleased to present to you it’s DJ’s for Utopia Encuentro 2024! Please see our Encuentro page for event information.

DJ Marcelo Rosensaft (DJ Marce Ros)

Marcelo was born in Uruguay and lives in Tel Aviv, Israel where he has been a tango DJ since 2011.

As a devoted milonguero, Marcelo enthusiastically shares with the global tango community his passion of tango music for dancing. 

Since 2015 Marcelo has been a regular DJ at encuentros, marathons, festivals and local milongas throughout the USA and Europe, and is the official DJ at the Argentine Tango USA Official Championship in San Jose, California, where he also teaches a DJ workshop.

Marcelo has also been a DJ at leading milongas in Buenos Aires and Montevideo: Porteño y Bailarín, Parakultural, La Milonga de Lucy, and El Chamuyo (Montevideo), among others.

Marcelo sensitively adjusts his music to match the energy of the milonga and on the dance floor. His music is very traditional and well balanced, maintaining a constant flow throughout the milonga.

DJ Artur Paulo

Music was what brought me into tango. I was a club/disco DJ during my High School and University years and I became a tango DJ after 2008 in local Milongas in Porto, Portugal. Ever since that I’ve DJ’ed in Festivals, Encuentros, Marathons and local Milongas in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America. My tandas are mainly focused in Golden Age tango. I like to mix people from different cultural backgrounds and it is a pleasure to make them dance together.

DJ Juliana Thutlwa

Juliana is an established musicalizadora de tango with a refined taste and love for tangos of the epoca d’oro. She could dance before she could walk, meaning she loves music of all kind and likes to share her idea of musical flow and connection throughout a Milonga. What to expect from her as a musicalizadora? Subtle guidance and suggestions so dancers may experience bliss and connection, all served with a dash of sugar and spice.

DJ Euan Park

My first encounter with tango was in a theatre, watching a Korean original play about love. Because the actor was a social tango dancer, the director used tango dance as a meaningful building block of the storytelling. The tango, interweaved into a storyline of love, captivated me, and I began to learn tango in no time. Since then, I have been dancing as a social dancer in Seoul milongas.

From the very beginning, I was fascinated by tango music, and I began learning and studying tango music in 2015. As a TDJ, I always tried hard to understand the making of the music, as well as the resulting music itself. In doing so, as a professional publisher-cum-translator, I decided to publish the Korean version of Michael Lavocah’s: ‘Tango Stories: Musical Secrets’, co-translated with TDJ Benjamin Lee. 

I know clearly that the DJ’s job is to make people dance: firstly, using the flows in each tanda and between tandas, and secondly, interacting with the live energy of the day’s milonga. In this process of ‘Live Tango’, each of us, as a member of a huge tango community, are adding our own input to renew tango, making it richer and more enjoyable. In this collective process of renewing tango, I believe that the beautiful tango music from the Golden Era of D’Arienzo, Di Sarli, Troilo, and Pugliese is being given a new life as ‘Tango con Amor’.

I have been DJing in Seoul milongas and parties in Tango O Nada, Ocho, El Tango, Luz Tango, Todo Tango, Club Pan; Busan milongas in Tango Mio, Puerto Tango, Busan Tango, and milongas in many cities such as Daejeon, Changwon, Suwon, Seongnam, Jinju, and Masan. I DJ’d in JM 2022 tango marathon in Taiwan, and in Daegu International Tango Marathon 2023 in Korea.

I also have been teaching various level of TDJ classes in Seoul, at the biggest tango community of SoloTango, and in Daegu at the Tango Viento. I work as an organizer of the Sunday afternoon milonga Alegre, at Tango O Nada, the most renowned bar in Seoul, since 2017.

DJ Kipp Chynoweth

Kipp has been a familiar face as a DJ at traditional milongas and practicas in New Mexico for various organizers since 2015. She is a regular DJ for The Tango Club of Albuquerque and has enjoyed dj’ing for different organizers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Kipp has DJ’d at Festivals and Encuentros in the US in Charleston, Port Townsend, LA, Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque. In Europe, Kipp has DJ’d at Summer Daze in Nijmegen, Amersfoort, Netherlands, Tenerife, Canary Islands, and Antwerp, Belgium.

As a DJ, Kipp enjoys sharing her selection of traditional golden age music drawing on the energy of the dancers on the floor. Kipp views DJ’ing as a conversation between the DJ and the dancers and therefore each milonga presents different musical opportunities.

DJ Andy Stein (DJ Tandy)

Andy is a passionate tango DJ and organizer who has been spinning tunes for dancers across the USA and Europe since 2012. He loves to create musical journeys that blend the best of the Golden Age with some surprises and twists. His tandas are carefully crafted to evoke different emotions and moods, from romantic to dramatic, from playful to intense.

He also likes to share his musical choices with the audience, using an external monitor to display the current and next tanda in a clear and helpful way.

When the pandemic hit, Andy did not let that stop him from bringing joy and connection to the tango community. He hosted weekly virtual milongas on Zoom, called Tandas Around the World, where dancers could enjoy his music and chat with each other.  As the founder of Milonga as a Service (MaaS), he offers a 24/7 online tango service in the cloud that is free and accessible to all at tinyurl.com/milongaas.

DJ Mark Mindel

My Tango journey began in 2011 when I first heard the music at a friends’ house. The Golden Era music had me from the start, and was what actually what drew me into tango.

I began Djing our own small milongas & local practica’s in 2015. Since that time, the love of tango music has lead to collaboration with Tango Tunes – Christian Xello, a respectable 6th place overall in the 2019 Remolino Tango DJ competition, Tango Celebration in Bruges Belgium, Maja and Marko workshop weekend in Florida, San Miguel Tango Festival Mexico, the Portland Tango Festival, Milonga Del Barrio in New York, and many tango events throughout the US and Southeast.

 I enjoy playing music that beckons dancers to the floor tanda after tanda, and I look forward to seeing and feeling the flow of energy within a milonga and tango weekend. It is a beautiful thing to share this love of tango music.