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This Sunday, July 17, Alex Garate’s group, Zingaros, will perform in Vitoria-Gasteiz, as part of its European tour that will also take them to Poland, Germany, Denmark, Austria and Slovakia, concluding in the Basque Country.  Garate, a professor of physics, mountain climber and accordionist, lives I Cordoba, where he moved in 1999.  The group, created in 2004, in Argentina fusions gypsy music with the Argentine tango. 

Donostia-San Sebastian.  Zíngaros, Alex Garate’s group, will be in the Basque Country soon. In fact this is where they will close their European tour with three concerts.  The first will take place on Sunday, the 17th, in Vitoria-Gasteiz; the second will be in Ermua on the 18th and on the 19th in Elgoibar, the Basque accordionist’s hometown.

This is the first time that the group, created in Argentina in 2004, will play in Euskal Herria, despite having performed several times in Europe.  For Garate, it will be a very special occasion, and very exciting, he assures, after being away from home for so long.  The group mixes gypsy music with the mythic Argentine tango, a unique and very special combination.

The story of this man from Elgoibar, who EuskalKultura.com interviewed in 2013 and 2015, is curious. Garate went to Argentina for the first time at the age of 23, when he graduated with his degree in Physics from the University of the Basque Country.  This trip was to complete his training at the College of Math, Astronomy and Physics (FaMAF) in Cordoba.  In the four years that he lived there, this mountaineer fell in love with the Andes.  After returning to the Basque Country, he returned to Argentina five years later intending to move their permanently.

Cuirently, Garate resides in Unquillo, province of Cordoba, where he dedicates himself to teaching and his free time to climbing mountains in Latin America, and music, thanks to the Zingaros group.  Garate joined the group in 2006, and they have published various CDs as well as tours through Argentina and Europe.

More information in this interview: Alex Garate, physicist, accordionist and mountaineer: the new profile of a 21st Century Basque Immigrant