Oscar Machioni enjoys a versatile career as solo and collaborative pianist, teacher and mentor, author, adjudicator, recording artist, and higher education administrator. Oscar grew up in Tafí Viejo, a small town in northern Argentina, and at age eight he asked his parents for piano lessons. His piano studies were carried out without a piano at home. In fact, he was 18 when his parents were able to buy him his first piano. Creativity was boiling in his blood, but without a piano his outlets were playing and composing for the recorder, painting, designing, Legos, chemistry sets, build things with wood, and theatre.
The lack of piano did not derail him from pursuing a career in music. Following high school graduation, he enrolled at Universidad Nacional de Tucumán for Civil Engineering and Music. After two months, he quit Engineering and dedicated himself completely to music. He progressed very quickly and in 1992 obtained a scholarship to study piano at the Academy of Music of Krakow. Upon graduation and a short visit to relatives in New York City, where he took private lessons, Oscar decided to continue with his Masters in Piano at SUNY-Fredonia, later transferring to Louisiana State University. Finally, completing his Doctoral piano studies at the University of Arizona (UofA). He is always thankful to all his piano mentors who believed in him: Lucia Herrera, Celina Lis, Ewa Bukojemska, Ana Maria Trenchi de Bottazzi, Phyllis East, Michael Gurt, Nohema Fernandez, and Tannis Gibson.
While a student at the UofA he won a summer Graduate Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Latino Initiatives where he conducted research on the impact of the Argentine tango in the music of the US. This opportunity granted him access to documents and scores later becoming the topic of his dissertation: The Tango in American Piano Music. Selected Tangos by Thomson, Copland, Barber, Jaggard, Biscardi, and Bolcom, which was then published as a book by College Music Society. He has also published articles in piano pedagogy and literature.