Flamenco coming to Mission
Juan Martin plays Mission on Oct. 18.
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Updated: October 02, 2009 3:32 PM
One of Spain’s most celebrated virtuosos of the flamenco guitar is coming to Mission. The Mission Folk Music Festival is presenting a concert with world-renown flamenco guitarist Juan Martín on Sunday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s United Church in Mission.
Festival artistic director Francis Xavier is elated.
“Through some good fortune, Juan and I met last year in Sevilla, Spain,” says Xavier. “We talked, spent time together. He is a wonderful human who was brought up in a wonderful and ancient tradition. To be with him, to talk of the guitar and flamenco was an extraordinary experience. The idea of him playing in Mission was simply a dream. Now it is a dream come true.”
Martín has been voted one of the top three guitarists in the world by the prestigious Guitar Player magazine. This is authentic flamenco, but it is also contempor-ary and accessible.
Martín has played the Royal Albert Hall, and the Montreux Jazz Festival and has collaborated with the likes of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has a terrifyingly good technique and an absolute dominance of the guitar; his performances ring with crystalline clarity. Martín learned his art in the land of its origin, Andalucía in southern Spain where he grew up.
This concert is a fundraising event for the Mission Folk Music Festival. Tickets are $20 in advance at Murdoch’s Bookshoppe in Mission, $25 at the door, or call 604-826-5937.
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