The Flamenco Festival starts tomorrow in New York with Sara Baras, Ismael Fernández and Miguel Ángel Cortés

The New York Flamenco Festival 2019 opens tomorrow, Thursday 7th March, with the first level performance of Sara Baras’ Flamenco Ballet, which will be at the New York City Center until 10th March with the show Sombras. This emblematic space that celebrates its 75th anniversary once again welcomes the Cádiz dancer, who already visited it in 2015, with the show that celebrates its 20th anniversary on the stages and which has had a successful trajectory in theatres all over the world.
In collaboration with the World Music Institute, also tomorrow Thursday but already in emblematic Joe’s Pub at The Public, the Sevillian vocalist Ismael Fernández will present his show Trato, an emotional show that achieves a direct connection with the audience. Fernández will thus give way to the touch of the maestro Miguel Ángel Cortés, who will premiere his own show in New York. These are his Sonantas en Tres Movimientos (Sonants in Three Movements) which he will perform with the collaboration of Dani Bonilla (choir and percussion) and Lucía Álvarez “La Piñona” (dance), closing the day’s programme. Their proposal is also part of the FlamencoEñe cycle.
About to celebrate two decades of life, Flamenco Festival has become one of the most significant stable events of Spanish culture in the United States and the main platform for flamenco in the international cultural scene. The Festival returns between March 7th to 17th to take this World Heritage artistic expression, beyond the Spanish borders, in nine shows and a total of 26 performances, 12 of them in two different venues in New York, plus another 14 performances of ‘Flamenco Festival On Tour’ in Miami, Chicago and Washington DC.
The 2019 edition of Flamenco Festival USA, after gathering 45,000 spectators in the USA in 2018, turns towards “The sounds of flamenco” as the main topic that the event developes this year showing, beyond the dance, the musical richness of this art. This represents a commitment to flamenco music and its different expressions, with 8 concerts out of 9 that the festival schedules, representing the different colors of flamenco sounds today. As an exponent of flamenco dance, Flamenco Festival has a single proposal, but first level: the great flamenco ambassador, dancer Sara Baras.

The piano of Chano Domínguez, the guitar of Antonio Rey, the flute of Sergio de Lope, or the voices of María Terremoto and Ismael Fernández, show how flamenco finds its way to musical expression in different instruments. In this sample of different flamenco artists, classical players such as guitarist Miguel Ángel Cortés and cantaor Israel Fernández are also intertwined with those who make flamenco dialogue with other kind of music, such as Diego Guerrero.

The strong presence of a new generation of flamencos that symbolize the present and future of this art, for the first time on the New York stages, highlight in the program that Flamenco Festival New York 2019 has designed for the emblematic Joe’s Pub at The Public. In spite of her youth, the Jerez-born cantaora María Terremoto and the Toledan cantaor Israel Fernández show how starting from solid flamenco inheritance is posible to advance in the construction of an own artistic discourse as they exposed in their first recordings. Terremoto will present ‘La Huella de mi Sentío’ accompanied by Nono Jero (guitar) and José “El Pechuguita” (choirs) on March 9th; and Fernández, in collaboration with the World Music Institute, will present ‘Universo Pastora’ accompanied by Keko Baldomero (guitar) on March 10th.

Co-produced by the Instituto Cervantes, Sergio de Lope, winner in 2017 of the International Competition of Cante de las Minas de la Unión, presents with his ensemble the show ‘Ser de Luz’ on March 8th, an exhibition of how the dialogue with other music can be a creative argument that fills the flamenco expression with nuances and light. Antonio Rey, one of the best guitarists of his generation, arrives on March 9th with his show ‘Two Parts of Me’ in which he is accompanied by the dancer and cantaora Mara Rey. Closing the catalog of the youngest ones who perform for the first time in New York, on March 10th the musician Diego Guerrero presents his first album ‘Vengo Caminando’, nominated as ‘Best Flamenco Album’ in the past Grammy Awards, demonstrating how a new generation of artists have made dialogue with other music a path of infinite possibilities for creation.

Three other artists, with broad and outstanding careers, complete the program at Joe’s Pub. In collaboration with the World Music Insitute, on Thursday, March 7th the Sevillian cantaor Ismael Fernández, presents his show ‘Trato’, an emotional experience that achieves a direct connection with the public. After Fernández’ show, master Miguel Ángel Cortés will premier for the first time his own show in New York. It is about his ‘Sonantas en tres Movimientos’ that he will perform with the collaboration of Dani Bonilla (chorus and percussion) and Lucía Álvarez “La Piñona” (dance), closing the program of the day. On March 8th, the perfect integration between flamenco and jazz will resonate once again in the Joe’s Pub with Chano Domínguez’s flamenco piano, that SFJAZZ magazine defines as, “one of the most outstanding musicians bilingual from Spain”.

ASSOCIATES

For the third consecutive year, the SGAE Foundation co-produces the FlamencoEñe cycle, while the Instituto Cervantes co-produces the show ‘Ser de Luz’ by Sergio de Lope. FlamencoEñe cycle integrates the concerts of Miguel Ángel Cortés, María Terremoto and Diego Guerrero in New York, Miami, Chicago and Washington DC, with the aim of continuing to convey that the deep roots of flamenco are in continuous creative regeneration.

On the other hand, EXTENDA (Andalusian Agency for Foreign Promotion) joins the collaborating institutions of Flamenco Festival in 2019, within the framework of the Andalucía Flamenca program that reflects the Andalusian regional government’s firm commitment to promoting Andalusian flamenco companies in the international arena, offering the whole world an opportunity to experience this exceptional cultural heritage.

Flamenco Festival USA is presented in collaboration with, New York City Center, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, and World Music Institute, in New York; Adrienne Arsht Center, and Fundarte, in Miami; Old Town School of Music, and Instituto Cervantes, in Chicago; and the Embassy of Spain in Washington DC.

The festival has the support of INAEM, Extenda-Junta de Andalucía, New York Tourism Office (Tourspain), Spain Arts & Culture and the Consulate of Spain in New York.