Born in Uruguay, Argentinean composer Adriana Isabel Figueroa Mañas studied music and flute at the National University of Cuyo’s School of Music graduating in 1997 and continued studies there with master’s courses in Latino-American music, jazz, improvisation, chamber music composition and orchestration. She has served as a flautist in many orchestras and performs on the saxophone and cello and has composed music for media, animations, video games, film, and television. Her compositions have been performed around the world with many receiving awards. Tango Images was written in collaboration with and is dedicated to tubist Mark Nelson. Nelson, a former instructor at the University of Vermont, Millikin University and Performing Arts Department Head at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, has performed with the Vermont Symphony, Illinois Symphony and Tempe Symphony, has commissioned over 30 new tuba works and has appeared around the world as a soloist and clinician.

The Tango dates to the 1880s and evolved out of the Rio de la Plata basin on the border of
Argentina and Uruguay. It is a social and partner dance that is a combination of Riopatense Candombe celebrations (Uruguayan song and danse), Spanish–Cuban Habañera, and Argentinean Milonga. The music and/or dance was often performed in brothels and bars to entertain the patrons. Spreading out into the world in the early 1900s the dance was perceived as having sexual overtones and inappropriate for performance in public. Many styles of the tango evolved throughout the world and over the years. You may be most familiar with the Ballroom tango, which uses a different style of music and more staccato dance movements, an example being the head snap. This set of Tangos, while in a variety of styles, is closer to the style of the Argentine tango which has a clear, repetitive pulse, and a strong beat which sounds as two strong beats within 4 beats of music.