Alum Debora Simcovich Ready to Tango Across Bay Area

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS -- But adding her voice as a songwriter to the male-dominated tango repertoire seemed like a bridge too far, until a tune she wrote caught the ear of an RCA Victor producer in Buenos Aires, which led to her recording her song “Fin de Año con los Argentinos” (New Year’s with the Argentines) in 1970. Even after Simcovich moved to the Bay Area a few years later to study film at San Francisco State she maintained her passion for writing tangos, crafting a steady flow of songs from a female perspective. “Over and over it was impossible to stay away from it,” Simcovich says. “It was a very striking emotional moment when I wrote my first tango. I had been writing and writing because I started as a teenager. I would play them off and on but I was more focused on writing than anything. I raised kids, taught at San Francisco State, but the music was always there.” The innovative ensemble returns to California next week for a series of performances.