Fernando Gelbard
Fernando Gelbard was born in Tucuman, Argentina to Jose Ber Gelbard (former Minister of Economy of General Peron) and Dina Haskel. After residing with his parents in Catamarca, Argentina, in 1954 the family moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 1976 the family left Argentina, before the bloody infamous Military Junta's coup d'etat and settled in California, USA. The Junta immediately confiscated the family's assets, that included a tire manufacturing plant and an aluminum smelter. After several difficult years and his Father's death in 1977, Fernando Gelbard was able to fight the junta in a surreal legal battle. With the help of his attorney Dr. Gustavo Caraballo and conducted by phone and hard to send and receive mail from the Argentina he recovered all the family assets in 1983. In 1984 with the advent of Raul Alfonsin's democratic government, he was able to travel to Argentina again.
In Argentina and later in the USA, Fernando Gelbard had a "parallel" career as a Jazz musician, record producer and composer. After 1983, he kept pursuing his music career, playing piano and flute and producing jazz recordings. At the same time, he had to travel back and forth to Argentina to take care of his industrial business. The business was later sold and he was able to devote his time to his two passions: consulting in personal strategies for businesspeople or politicians, mainly in Argentina and producing music. He was active in art institutions like the American Film Institute, The Foundation for New American Music and the Young Musician's Foundation. He made many friends among the most talented, busy musicians and composers and with people in the film industry. His travels took him to many places, specially to Argentina, where his activity as a consultant flourished.
In 1988, the then Candidate to the Presidency in Argentina, Dr. Carlos Saul Menem, offered him the challenging post of Argentinean ambassador to France. From 1989 to 1991, Ambassador Fernando Gelbard lived in Paris. Using his business experience, many economic events happened during his watch. Argentina was a belligerent country during the first Gulf War, and ambassador Gelbard dealt through his post, being an Ambassador and a Jew, with many interesting and delicate issues that took him to Algeria, Syria, Israel and Myanmar as envoy of President Menem. In 1991, for family reasons (the birth of his first granddaughter), Fernando Gelbard, decided to come back to California. Resigning to an ambassadorial post of that magnitude was not easy, President Menem offered Fernando Gelbard the embassy in Israel or any other embassy, but being a grandparent was more important. Always working as a consultant, Fernando Gelbard in 1994, through is friend The Honorable Fernando Taboada, then Argentinean Ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, met King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. A solid friendship evolved and Fernando Gelbard had the honor to share his experience with His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk. The Monarch decorated Fernando Gelbard twice, once with the Order of Commander of Sahametrei and once with the Order of Commander of the Kingdom of Cambodia. King Sihanouk abdicated in 2005 to his son King Norodom Sihamoni.
As for Fernando Gelbard's jazz career, there are many sites which can be found by just searching his name in Google. His jazz label is www.liquidjazz.com