Performance

When Sunday, 7 December 2014
Where Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin
Presented by Dublin Flamenco Festival and Waltons World Masters

Camerata Flamenco Project

Pablo Suárez • Piano
José Luis López • Cello
Ramiro Obedman • Flute & Saxophone
Antonio Campos • Singer & Cajón

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Camerata Flamenco Project is a unique ensemble that brings together extraordinary musicians from the flamenco, jazz and classical worlds to create music and performances like no other. Their sound is rich, passionate, expressive and subtle – and above all rooted in the rhythmical patterns and energy of flamenco.

Camerata Flamenco Project

Before Camerata Flamenco Project was formed, its members had developed their individual careers as both performers and composers with some of the best flamenco companies in the world. Pablo Suárez (piano) and José Luis López (cello) met while working on the show La Garra y el Angel by Eva Yerbabuena and Rafael Amargo in 1997 at the Teatro del Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. In 1996, they met Ramiro Obedman (flute, saxophone) while working with Adrián Galia’s company in Japan. After several years of work with major flamenco productions, they formed their own Camerata Flamenco Project.

The Project’s first performance was at the Singapore Arts Festival in the spring of 2004, and in June 2006 they released the album Burlador, a collaboration with the guitarist Jesús Torres and the choreographer Rafaela Carrasco, with performances at the Joyce Theater and Schubert Theaters in New York. Since then, they have performed at major music festivals including La Noche en Blanco (Madrid), Suma Flamenca (Madrid), the Madrid Jazz Festival, FACYL (The Arts Festival of Castilla y León) and Palma de Mallorca, as well as the Dublin Flamenco Festival.

Pablo Suárez, Piano

Pablo began his musical studies in Barcelona with Rosario Vilanova and later studied at the Taller de Músics in Barcelona. In 1995, he moved to Madrid, where he focused professionally on flamenco. He was very much in demand as an interpreter, composer and musical director for a number of important flamenco performers and companies, including Adrián Galia, Eva Yerbabuena, Rafael Amargo, Cristina Hoyos, Rafaela Carrasco, Andrés Marín and Carmen Linares. More recently, he has collaborated with Rafael Jiménez ‘Falo’, Paco del Pozo, Cano, Antonio Rey, Los Macarines, Nacho Arimany, Jesús Torres, José Luis López, Jesús Corbacho and Carmen Linares, among others.

José Luis López, Cello

Born in Madrid, José Luis studied cello and chamber music and in 1990 won First Prize for Interpretation in the Certamen de Música Madrid Joven 90. He continued his training with Mikhail Khomitser, professor of music at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, and became a professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Salamanca. Deeply interested in the complexity and richness of flamenco, he has collaborated in recordings and taken part in such festivals as Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla, Festival de Jerez, Grec de Barcelona, International Festival of Dance of Kuopio, Winterturer Music Festwochen, Printemps de Bourges, Festival de la Guitarra de Córdoba and Singapore Arts Festival. He has also worked with a number of extraordinary flamenco artists, such as José Monje ‘Viejín’, Lole Montoya, Jose Antonio Galicia, Paco del Pozo, Niña Pastori, Juan Ramirez, Merche Esmeralda, Lola Greco, Adrián Galia, Rafael Amargo, Compañía Andaluza de Danza, Lola Greco and Manuel Reyes. In 2002 he received the award for the best original music for dance in the eleventh Certamen Internacional de Coreografía de Flamenco y Danza Española in Madrid. José Luis has also worked as an artistic director and has recorded for several films, including Salomé by Carlos Saura.

Ramiro Obedman, Flute & Saxophone

Born in Argentina in 1971, Ramiro moved to Madrid where he studied saxophone and flute, piano, harmony and composition. He has travelled extensively in Spain, Argentina and Cuba, and studying at various institutions (La Escuela de Música Creativa, La Facultad de Musica de La Plata, El Instituto Superior de Arte ISA) under a number of distinguished masters (M. Escribano, B. Lopardo, H. Samela, Andres Alen and Javier Salva to name a few). Professionally, he has worked across a variety of musical styles including jazz, Latin, reggae and ska, Argentinian tango and musical theatre. From 1996, he began working with a number of distinguished flamenco companies, and this style of music became his principal focus professionally and artistically. Since then he has worked Adrian Galia, Rafaela Carrasco, Nuevo Ballet Español, Antonio Marquez, Manolete and numerous other dancers. In addition he has worked with flamenco singers of the calibre of Montse Cortes, Paco del Pozo and others, and performed in Nuevas Generaciones by Cristina Hoyos. In addition to performing, Ramiro produces and composes music for documentaries, advertising, dance and theatre. He is also featured on albums by Antonio Rey Grupo, Makarines, Lila Horowitz and the Juan Cuacci Quintet.

Antonio Campos, Singer & Cajón

Born in Tarragona to Andalusian emigrants, Antonio moved to Atarfe in Granada at a young age. Without a history of flamenco in his family, he began to like it by listening to recordings and soon began playing the guitar and composing his own music. His professional career began with a song he composed for the album Granada baila por tangos, a commission by Raúl Alcover, who also sang. When Angustillas la Mona heard him, she hired him to sing at her cave in Sacromonte, where he was resident from 1988 to 2003. Since then, he has collaborated on national and international tours with such renowned bailaores as Fuensanta la Moneta, Manuel Liñán, Rafaela Carrasco, Juan Andrés Maya and Antonio Canales, among many others. He has also recorded songs for the albums Al aire de Graná, Entre ciprés y jazmín, Jóvenes con esencia flamenca and Flamenco Chill. More recently, he has performed in the show Mujeres, directed by Mario Maya and on the album Silence-Light: World Flamenco Septet by Nacho Arimany, recorded in New York, and he released his first solo album, a live recording at the Corral del Carbón in Granada with Daniel Méndez on guitar, in 2009.

Selected YouTube Videos

Workshop at the New School

Following their performance for the Dublin Flamenco Festival, Camerata Flamenco Project presented a fascinating workshop at at the New School.

This was a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the most exciting and original groups to emerge on the flamenco scene in years.

Members of the Camerata Flamenco Project began the workshop with a brief performance and then opened the workshop to questions and answers about flamenco and their unique approach to it. They also discussed and demonstrated some elements of that approach, including rhythm, ‘compás’, flamenco harmony and improvisation.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to them all for so generously sharing their wonderful musicianship and insights into the world of flamenco with us.

A photo gallery of the workshop can be viewed below. (All photographs by Seán Laoide-Kemp.)