Young, but already with a wealth of experience built on an outstanding lineup forged through hours and hours of rehearsals and countless live performances. These are the artists who will star in the four galas of Young Flamenco Sumain the Summa Flamenca Festival. An exhibition that has become established after the past four editions, whose program was presented these days by the Director General of Cultural Promotion and Minister of Culture and Creative Industries, manuel lakes, and the artistic director of the festival, Antonio Benamargo.
Twelve solo artists under 30 years of age participate in the categories of cante, dance and flamenco concert guitar and other instruments in this meeting in the Sala Verde of Teatros del Canal of the Community of Madrid, which will be held from September 25 to 28. Prior to this, the Ateneo of Madrid will host the sessions that form the theoretical foundation of the Suma Flamenca festival, which this year address the always stimulating and inexhaustible debate between tradition and avant-garde.
The pianist from Valladolid José Luis Kaele, a young prodigy gifted with what is called “absolute pitch”, will open the Suma Joven galas accompanied by the double bass player Xavier Hill. The youngest winner of the International Festival Award will perform next. Cante from the Mines of La Unión, Kings Carrasco, from Seville, with Ruben Lara (guitar) and Edu Gomez y Perico La Chana (compass). The Granada dancer will close that first day Irene Morales, with the cante de Antonio Campos y Juan Ángel Tirado, and the touch of Jose Fermin Fernandez.
The second gala features Andjela Misic, guitarist from Serbia who founded flamenco and classical music; the versatile and solid singer from Granada Hope Garrido (With Paco Jarana to the touch) and Nerea Carrasco, a dancer from Madrid, who will perform with Rafita from Madrid y Saúl Quirós, singers, the guitarist David Cerreduela and percussionist Moncada.
Pablo Heredia, winner of the Flamenco Guitar Competition for Young Performers in Jaén, will perform the guitar in concert at the third gala (with Alejandro Daneri, on percussion). In this third Suma Joven event he will sing David Fernández, from the mythical Fernandez Familyfrom Seville (accompanied by the guitarist Juan Anguita y Miguel Fernández y Emilio Castaneda, to the beat), and will dance Lole de los Reyes from Seville, daughter of the dancer John of the Kings, together with Eleazar Cerreduela y Jose Luis Hernandez al cante, Alejandro moreno to the guitar and John of the Kings at palmas.
Suma Joven will conclude with Juan Anguita, guitar in concert, from Seville (with Miguel Fernández y Emilio Castaneda, compass); the singer from Badajoz Celia Romero, winner of the Miner's Lamp in La Unión, accompanied by Seve child, guitar, and Felix romero y Luis Vadillo, compass; and the flamenco dancer from Tarragona Yoel Vargas, Desplante Award in La Unión in 2023, in whose performance the singers will participate Aroa Fernandez y Diego's Loreto, Guitarist Xavier Count and the percussionist Juan M. de las Heras.
"Young, but already with a wealth of experience built on an outstanding line-up forged through hours and hours of rehearsals and countless live performances. These are the artists who will star in the four galas of Young Flamenco Suma, within the Suma Flamenca Festival»
Tradition and avant-garde, an inexhaustible debate
The days leading up to the Suma Flamenca festival and the exhibition organized by the festival address one of those recurring debates since the beginning of the genre. jondo, which confronts tradition with the avant-garde and which will cover the twentieth edition of the main meeting with art jondo from Spain from October 14 to November 2, with a total of 46 flamenco galas.
The Anselma exhibition hall at the Ateneo de Madrid will host a collection of some of the photographer's work Claudia Ruiz Caro has been carried out in the last ten years flamenco (2015-2025) on stage and behind it, seeking naturalness and the aesthetic dignity of the genre.
With the main focus on portraits and the beauty of the staging, the amalgamation of artists that make up the exhibition Tradition & Avant-garde They are a faithful reflection of the flamenco tradition and in turn of the creative explosion that has occurred in recent years, from the present to the precursors of the avant-garde movements that today explore the flamenco as starting point.
The Ruiz Caro exhibition can be visited free of charge between October 1 and 29, and on the day of its opening, the sessions dedicated to tradition and avant-garde in the same Ateneo will begin. flamenco, which will run for four days, until Saturday, October 4, with the participation of specialists and guitarists, singers, and dancers. Admission is also free until capacity is reached.
The journalist and writer Bald Peter will moderate the opening round table, which will include as participants José Luis Ortiz Nuevo, Ángeles Toledano, Agapito Pageo and Ángeles Castellanos. Next, he will act Salvador Gutierrez, with a guitar recital, accompanied by the percussionist Daniel Suarez.
The artist, researcher and editor Peter G. Romero will give the first of the three presentations of these sessions on October 2, El flamenco, before and after flamencoFor this scholar and promoter of avant-garde flamenco projects, the dialectic between tradition and avant-garde "is just one of the founding episodes of the genre, one of those that most strongly contributed to its current configuration." Following his presentation, the Huelva-born singer will perform. Sebastian Cruz, Raul Cantizano (flamenco guitar, electric guitar and hurdy-gurdy) and Marco Serrato (double bass).
The writer, journalist and producer Jose Manuel Gamboa maintains that the flamenco Today's pure music is the result of the decanting of its long history of impurities, avant-garde movements, fashions, and other environmental musical circumstances. He will discuss this in his presentation on October 3rd. What's new, old man? Everything's been invented., at the end of which the duo formed by the young and talented will perform Al-White, singer from Malaga, and The Movie, Ali's guitaristcante.
The closing of the conference will be on Saturday, October 4th by José Luis Ortiz Nuevo, writer and creator of the Biennial of Flamenco from Seville, with Tradition & Avant-garde. The End of the World, where he will argue that "every tradition worth its salt comes directly from the furnace of an avant-garde that ignites it." The session will conclude with the Alicante guitarist Alejandro Hurtado, Miner's Bordón Award in La Unión in 2017.
