idely known among tango people as Finito Dominguez, he carried out a long career as violinist in several tango orchestras. In some of them he took the seat as first violin or soloist and, in others, he played as section member and contributed with his experience and great ductility for styles.

He was born in Zárate, province of Buenos Aires, the hometown of of great tango talents like the brothers Virgilio and Homero Expósito and Armando Pontier.

He studied violin with the great teacher Rolando Curzel and, in the 1940s, he started his professional career in the Sexteto Típico led by Cristóbal Herreros. In 1946 he joined the orchestra fronted by Pedro Laurenz, and later he joined the aggregations of Edgardo Donato, Rodolfo Biagi, Campos-Calabró, Domingo Federico, Carlos Figari and Francisco Rotundo. In the latter orchestra —undoubtedly, his most important tenure— he succeeded in recording a very interesting repertoire which allows the present generations to discover him as player.

I dare to make a brief technical analysis about those recordings which highlight a restrained vibrato, with a strong marcato on the strings, brilliant and with a solid technical command. His appearances as soloist show him inspired, profound, but never excessive.

The Francisco Rotundo orchestra, very successful in the 1950s due to the quality of its singers (Julio Sosa, Floreal Ruiz, Enrique Campos, Carlos Roldán, Jorge Durán and Alfredo Del Río), with the orchestra charts by the bandoneonist Ernesto Rossi (Tití), achieved a style signature of its own. It was, as always Rotundo himself used to say, an orchestra that backed the work of the singers; but besides that, it displayed musicianship and the recordings they left are flawless.

There Finito Domínguez found his place because the arrangements devised by Tití Rossi, and later by Luis Stazo, always gave him space for his showcasing. Revising the repertoire recorded between December 1948 and September 1957 —not so extensive—, we can hear him in tangos like “Agüelita qué hora son”, “Levanta la frente”, “Sobre el pucho”, “El pollero” and, especially, in “Milonguera”, in which he plays a solo full of emotive nature, a deep cadenza with good tango phrasing, concluded in double stop, a devise not generally used.

Among the seven instrumental tangos recorded, we may listen how Finito Domínguez is showcased in “Entre sueños”, “Marejada”, “Mariposita”, “Mal de amores” and “Para recordarlo”.

When the Rotundo’s orchestra in 1957 is disbanded for reasons connected with our national political situation, Domínguez switched to the orchestra led by the pianist Fulvio Salamanca. He stayed for four years and he replaced no less than maestro Elvino Vardaro.

Thereafter he played with Miguel Caló and made a tour of Chile. On his comeback he switched to the orchestra led by Juan D'Arienzo. These tenures were short and in 1966 he was summoned by Osvaldo Pugliese to fill the vacant post left by the legendary violinist Julio Carrasco when he retired.

He had a 16-year tenure with Pugliese and in 1982 he decided to split with the orchestra. Even though he had the chance to be promoted to become first solo violin he did not accept that responsibility and at different times he was second and third violin. He was one of the musicians that experienced alongside Pugliese the breaking up and later transition that took place in March 1968 when the mythical and historical Osvaldo Ruggiero, Julián Plaza, Víctor Lavallén, Alcides Rossi, Oscar Herrero, Emilio Balcarce and Jorge Maciel quit the orchestra.

After that, a more classically trained string section is established when violin Mauricio Marcelli, as lead violin and soloist, Finito Domínguez and Santiago Kutchevasky, as second and third violin, Bautista Huerta on viola, Pedro Vidaurre on cello and Fernando Romano on double bass are included. As member of the orchestra he traveled to Japan, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles in 1979; and in 1981 to Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. After the summer season in Mar del Plata he quit the orchestra in 1982.

As the finale of his career, that same year he was summoned to join the section of the leading violins of the Orquesta del Tango de Buenos Aires which was recently put together and was conducted by Carlos García and Raúl Garello.

When this stage finished he decided to withdraw from the profession. He, undoubtedly, left an important artistic contribution for the history of our tango.