This show is at the vanguard of modern flamenco and brings the elegant dance of Luisa Chichano and the prize winning singer Amparo Heredia ‘La Repompilla' together with the intensity and emotion of one of the world's finest guitarists.
A celebrated virtuoso of the flamenco guitar who has been voted into the top three guitarists in the world by US magazine Guitar Player, Juan Martín learned his art in the land of its origin Andalucia, in southern Spain. He is “The leading flamenco guitarist of his generation” according to the Guardian (2008).
He has recorded 20 albums, mostly as a composer, the most recent of which are Serenade with the Royal Philharmonic and Solo. “In Martín’s hands flamenco is not so much a musical style as an entire culture compressed into a quivering box of air”. The Guardian,UK.
He performs with a highly distinctive compositional style formed from his early years in Málaga and developed through wide experience in Madrid. At 17 he featured in the film ‘Donde tu estés’ filmed in the Málaga area. Further experience and polish came through recordings and live performances with artists of the calibre of Miles Davis and the Nash Ensemble. He was greatly honoured to be asked to play for Picasso’s 90th birthday celebrations on which he based his album Picasso Portraits. His music is currently being used as part of the Guernica exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.
His collaborations have included a CD of his compositions with film composer Mark Isham called Painter in Sound and Through the Moving Window, a recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and reviews of his solo compositions on The Andalucian Suites and Luna Negra have compared him to the great Spanish composers Tárrega and Turina. His interest in the Moorish roots of flamenco have led him to record Musica Alhambra and rediscover Andalusí and Sephardic music from the 12th and 13th centuries no longer performed in Spain: ‘Martín spans the centuries with a mixture of the dazzling and the profound’ wrote The Observer. He has also recorded albums with flamenco singers and dancers including Live en Directo that received a critics’ award in Spain.
“The cream of Spain’s dancers”
“He has an absolute dominance of the guitar.”
£18 Advance
£21 On the Door