DJs

Derrick Del Pilar

Portland, OR

Derrick took his first tango steps in Buenos Aires in 2006 and started DJing in 2008. Taking cues from the dance floor, he plays classic tangos, milongas, and valses with rhythm, romance, energy, playfulness, drama—whatever the dancers seem to be craving in the moment. He has DJed at milongas, marathons, and festivals across the U.S., such as: Century Ballroom in Seattle, Portland Valentango, Portland TangoFest, Portland Tango Marathon, Tree City Tango in Boise, San Francisco Tango Marathon, Nora’s Tango Week, All-Night Milonga in Berkeley, Oxygen Tango in Los Angeles, San Diego Tango Festival, Tucson Tango Festival, Phoenix Encuentro Milonguero, Albuquerque Tango Festival, Buscándote Marathon in Houston, Chicago Mini Tango Festival, and Gallo Ciego & Bailemos in Astoria in New York City. He is currently based in Portland, Oregon, where he regularly DJs at Tango Berretín and other local milongas.

Derrick also holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on the history and literature of Argentina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You can read his English translation of tango lyrics at poesiadegotan.com.

Carol Horowitz

Montreal, Canada

Carol often Dj'sat the Studio Tango Milongas she hosts in Montreal, and when schedule permits, she loves to travel to marathons and festivals around North America.
She's Dj'd at the Abrazo Marathon, East Coast Marathon, San Francisco Tango Marathon, Tango Magic, Los Mujeres Marathon, and the Philadelphia Tango Festival to name a few. A DJ with a keen sense of energy and flow, she helps facilitate an electric yet warm atmosphere that keeps everyone on their feet tanda after tanda.

A classically trained dancer who worked for several years in contemporary dance, Carol was introduced to tango through friends, falling immediately in love with the creative and improvisational aspects of the dance. A passionate teacher, Carol is co-founder/manager of Studio Tango Montreal, a centerpiece of Montreal's vibrant tango scene that boasts 10 permanent teachers on staff. Aside from teaching and managing the Studio’s regular activities, Carol has produced countless workshops with visiting guest teachers as well as many larger events, including the Montreal Summer Tango Fling, Bailongo Montreal Tango Festival held annually in May and La Fete, an annual New Year's holiday time string of milongas.

Avik Basu

Ann Arbor, MI

Avik began his tango journey in Ann Arbor in 2002 and has since become a highly sought after DJ, playing at many of the major tango events in North America. Some of his more interesting adventures include DJing at Salon Canning, teaching tango to a Bollywood actress in Mumbai, and touring the U.S. as the bandoneon player tango band Trio Folias. Avik's musical selections are grounded in the Golden Age classics, but he also enjoys pushing the boundaries of the familiar (in small doses) and offering dancers a chance to explore something new.

Prashant Iyer

San Francisco, CA

Introduced to Argentine Tango in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, Prashant has been an enthusiastic social dancer there ever since. He has been DJing in the Bay Area since 2022 and is excited to share his favorite Golden Age recordings with dancers everywhere.

Prashant is a traditional tango DJ who plays the Golden Age the way the dancers of the 1940s heard it: strong, danceable, and built for the ronda. The dance comes first, lyrics close behind, and he picks songs whose stories he knows and is happy to share. Every milonga is an attempt to imbue the soul of the dance floor with the spirit of the old orchestras, the singers and the poets who wrote for them, so that for a few hours the room dances in their company.

Aijan Jumukova

San Francisco, CA

Aijan attended her first tango class in Ireland in 2014 and was instantly captivated. With a background in classical music, she is especially drawn to delving into the composition, orchestration and history of tango music. Aijan appreciates the Golden Age classics and enjoys a touch of Doja Cat during cortinas.

Lampis Z

Los Angeles, CA

Lampis has been fascinated by tango for two decades and continuously tries to expand his understanding of this complex art form. Playing the right tanda at the right time is critical for an emotionally fulfilling evening of dancing and he aims to achieve exactly that with his music selections. Lampis focuses on traditional music that keeps the dancers on the floor until the very end of the milonga. He has been regularly DJing all these years in festivals, marathons, encuentros, and tango events all over the world.