Making music ... one family at a time

By CANDY REAGAN / Abilene Families Editor

Music runs in Gustavo Tulosa’s family.

He is a professional musician; his mother is a professional musician; and his two children are budding musicians, as are a niece and a nephew.

Soon he hopes to have all six of the music lovers together on stage for their first three-generational concert.
“We haven’t done the three-generations, so I wanted to do it,” he said. “But that takes a lot of work.”
Gustavo, a former Abilenian, now teaches piano in Dallas, but his children attend school in Abilene, as do his niece and nephew.

He is Director of Piano Studies at North Lake College and Director of the Arts Academy at Brookhaven College, and also manages two Concert Series in Dallas.

A concert pianist, he has performed all over the world, including appearances with the Abilene Philharmonic.
 Gustavo also performs with his mother Raquel Rigotti, also a former Abilenian, and they are the only mother/son professional piano duo in the nation.

“At least once a year or so we play in different places – like New York,” he said. “We do fund-raisers. Playing together is a very special thing.”

This summer he hopes to plan a concert that would not only feature he and his mother performing together, but a very special perfomance by him, his mother and her four grandchildren – their first three-generation concert. His plan is to coordinate such a concert as part of a concert series in Dallas.

It would be a very special concert for a family whose lives have been full of music for many, many generations. 
Gustavo grew up in Argentina where he was exposed to a variety of music at a very early age.

“I heard music from the first day I was born,” he said. “My grandmother played the piano, and my grandfather used to rock me to sleep with opera.”

His mother grew up listening to her own parents and grandparents play the Spanish guitar, and she sat down at her first piano when she was only 7. Like his mother, Gustavo turned to the piano by the time he was 8. It proved to be a way for him to overcome his shyness.

“I had a wonderful teacher who really inspired me,” he said. “Pretty soon I ran out of places to play in Argentina, and I wanted to come to the United States.”

Gustavo came to Abilene Christian University, and soon his mother and his sister followed. Now his own children, Julia, 11, and Elena, 14, both Craig Middle School students, are veteran violinists.

His nephew, Daniel, a sophomore at Cooper, plays the french horn; and his niece, Andrea, 13, is the latest family member to pick up an instrument. She began playing clarinet in school and now is a 7th- grader at Madison.

Like their grandmother and father/uncle, the children were exposed to music from an early age and watching family members make music inspired them to do the same.

But so far none has shown an interest in making it their profession, which is fine with Gustavo. He said he would never push music on his children.

“I’ve seen a lot of that, and I think it’s counter-productive,” he said. “I think music is always going to be a part of their lives, but being a professional musician is hard.

“I just wanted them to try it and be the best that they can be at it.””