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From January 18th until February 3rd 2013 we're celebrating another edition of the Dutch Flamenco Bienal and I just wanted to share the workshop programme with you! There are guitar workshops with Miguel Ángel Cortés, Salvador Gutiérrez and a cante accompaniment masterclass by Arcángel en Miguel Ángel Cortés. Also, Mayte Martín will teaching her cante! And there are a lot of dance classes, but I'm not sure how many dancers are actually on the foro :)
This makes the Sadler's Wells (London) flamenco festival seem like childs play!
I suppose its across four cities! it looks awesome!!!
tell me something.... how come the dutch get a flamenco biennale? is it just luck that someone on the culture/arts council happens to be crazy about flamenco or do the dutch really dig flamenco so much??
Oh hang on?!?!? this is your doing anne marie?? do you book all these artists??
tell me something.... how come the dutch get a flamenco biennale? is it just luck that someone on the culture/arts council happens to be crazy about flamenco or do the dutch really dig flamenco so much??
Oh hang on?!?!? this is your doing anne marie?? do you book all these artists??
Holland has a rich tradition as it comes to flamenco. In the 50ties flamenco performances were offered approximately ones every fortnight at the hotspots of the country. In those days traveling dancers often performed flamenco with local players on compositions of Albeniz, that's until the Union Musicales Madrid started to publish orchestral arrangements for many (if not all) palos, fully arranged for bands like the one my father played at the time (we are talking the Carmen Amaya area now). My fathers band accompanied many flamenco dancers but never met Carmen. But he did met the fabulous Manolo Marin, the only dancer bringing his own guitarist. His name was Fernando Carranza ....when you google him you might run into a commercially available "guitar-mute". If you wonder were he got the inspiration...my father invented and played it in 50ties when they became musical friends and spend much time together. He still has his hand made original from the 50ties that to me looks more appealing than this one :-)
In the 50ties also the fist flamenco dance school was opened in the Netherlands in a place called Utrecht (remember that name). My father received "offers" from both Manolo Marin's guitarist (to take over his place) and that brand new dancing school but didn't want to leave the band.
In the 60ties (when television took over more and more) this life-performing tradition unfortunately ended. That's when i was born. I became interested in flamenco in the early 70ties and until the mid 80ties the flamenco performances i knew of (and visited myself) were restricted to Paco Peña, Paco de lucia, Juan Martin, "Fiesta Gitana"and Vicente Amigo (visiting holland). Paco de Lucia still mainly raised applause whenever he played a flashing picado and at the Fiesta Gitana performances part the audience (woman of a certain age) dressed up like the dancers on stage (meaning lots of costumes covered with dots).
In 1985 Rotterdams Conservatorium started the very first University School of Flamenco Guitar in the world (starring Paco Peña, Hans van Goch (my dad) and Ricardo Mendeville) At precent day it's part of WMDC>>>see workshops in above program). I was 1 out of 11 students that fist year. When we visited a concert of PDL together everyone but me was flabbergasted when he played La Barrosa for the very first time....i simply had not the level yet to understand how extraordinary that piece was. My father did and when we returned home in the middle of the night he ear played and annotated the introduction even before he got out of his coat.
At the same time some serious dancing schools popped up in the big citys like "Centro Flamenco Puro" in (again) Utrecht. Both Rotterdams Conservarorium and Centro Flamenco Puro in Utrecht frequently invited top performers of Spain to come over and give workshops. In 1987 Casa de España (the local cultural centre of Spanish government promoting spanish culture in the netherlands) joint hands with Vredenburg (a huge concert hall in (again) Utrecht that previously programed PDL every other year). That firsts season 6 experimental flamenco concerts were programmed on a small stage starring:
Carmen Linares/ Paco Cortés Antonio Carbonell/ Montoyita/ Pepe Carbonell Naranjito de Triana/Manolo Franco Jose Merce/Enrique de Melchor Cabriél Moreno/ Carlos Pardo Curro de Utera/ José Antonio Rodriguez
A single individual might have been hindered and replaced by alternatives, i'm just copying the (contracted) lineups. More important, al shows were completely sold out and a huge success. So the 1988/99 season offered
Chano Lobato/Paco de Antiquera Lois Heredia "El Polaco"/ Miguel Ochano Enrique Orozco/ Lois pastor Paco Taranto/ Riqueni FLAMENCO FESTIVAL 89*
*the closing night was an 8 hour marathon on the big stage of Vredenburg (at the time one of the biggest concert hals of the netherlands). That night was totally packed with artists and audience. I can't find the program of that night but i remember Victor Monge "Serranito" and Geraldo Nuñez.
With so much flamenco connection the city Utrecht became known as el Utrera del Note. Over the years they welcomed major performances like the 15 year old Jeronimo Maya and Manolo Sanlucar's Tauromagia project (who once again left stage in an angry mood halfway the concert...he wrongfully blamed the band who did an excellent job). Obviously el "Utrera del Norte" also welcomed Fernanda y Bernarda de Utrera :-) Soon other major theaters in the Netherlands began to program flamenco on a regular base and hundreds of people became interested and active in the art of Flamenco.....we even had a dutch flamenco magazine for years.
When Farruquito and his family gave a concert a couple of years ago the huge concert hall was packed with knowledgable and often well trained spectators (most of them practiced flamenco half a lifetime). When an elderly member of the Farruca family performed a "tourists like this" kind of Bulerias she didn't get any response at all. As a result it became even more "applause fishing" with even lesser results. The same happened with most of the other performers, we didn't bite. During the break i seriously considered leaving. I'm glad i didn't... the 2th half was much better and opened with a superb Seguiriyas that received a standing ovation. In 25 years of time the average level of the dutch public had evolved from ignorant spectators (understanding picado's only) to well informed and often well trained "participants" (preferring a fabulous Seguiriyas over a touristic Bulerias). Now days the public doesn't wear dots anymore but might generate well executed palmas during the encore.
So the Netherlands have a respectable tradition as it comes to Flamenco...did you know a very young Vicente Amigo finally found himself a place to study at the house of his Cordoba residenced dutch friends ruud/egbert/ad (i jump back in time to apr. 1980 now) and on top received his first Gerundino guitar free of charge from his dutch friend Ad Roymans (who links the netherlands to flamenco in many other ways as well).
I'm not sure (so correct me if i'm wrong) but i guess it was Ernestina who initiated (what have become) the highly respected Dutch Flamenco Biënnale. She also made this beautiful film about Moraito.
Ha! It's funny but I know 3 of the not-so-famous guys on that list:
Vlatko Stefanovski Miroslav Tadic Teodossi Spassov
These guys do NOT play flamenco. I actually find it pretty funny that they're on this list however they are absolutely amazing and I would recommend to anyone here to check them out. I really need to emphasize before the flamenco police gets on the case that these guys do not play fakemenco or pretend to play flamenco on any level. Anyway I think short bios are in order.
Vlatko Stefanovski became famous in the former Yugoslavia by playing rock versions of Macedonian folk songs while part of a band called "Leb i Sol" (bread and salt). All of the band members were quite spectacular and they're personally my favourite band from the former Yugoslavia (which to most of you means nothing).
Miroslav Tadic is a Serbian classical guitar player that left Yugoslavia to study music in Italy and currently lives and teaches in LA. After Paco de Lucia I would say he is my favourite guitarist. While he is a classical player he has written a lot of experimental music that I can only describe as abstract jazz. Like Stefanovski he is also heavily influenced by Macedonian folk music.
Teodossi Spassov is a Bulgarian kaval (type of flute) player. I don't know much about him.
Anyway, even though I think it might bother some that they are included since they do not play flamenco I think that this would be a treat and a pleasant surprise for those that are willing to look past flamenco for the Bienal.
Theodossii Spassov is also quite famous, he's been experimenting with flamenco; he was with us before, in a project with Dorantes and Joaquín Grilo.
So it's definitely not a mistake that they're in the list.
That was indeed a marvelous project, but to be honest i didn't enjoy Theodosii Spassov at all in that setting. Renaud Garcia Fons on the other hand was one of the highlights of that memorable performance :-)
So this is not the first collaboration you say? Where can I find more information about this project? I wouldn't even know what to Google. Was it a live show? Was it recorded?
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