Master Guitarist Paco Peña Delivers an Authentic Flamenco Experience with A Compás! — In The Rhythm at the Kimmel Center, October 3
SEPTEMBER 9, 2009
Flamenco guitar master Paco Peña and his internationally acclaimed dance company return to the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall with A Compás! – In The Rhythm on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 3pm. Peña and his ensemble deliver an authentic flamenco experience: a spontaneous combustion of energy on stage among musicians, vocalists and dancers who create an inimitable work of art each time. From the almost tribal, trance-inducing quality of the alboreá to the razor-sharp complexity of the bulería, A Compás! unleashes to audiences flamenco’s rhythmic energy in its rawest, purest form.
"Mr Peña is a virtuoso, capable of dazzling an audience beyond the
frets of mortal man. He combines rapid-fire flourishes with a
colourist's sense of shading; this listener cannot recall hearing any
guitarist with a more assured mastery of his instrument." —
This is the first performance in the World & Pop series scheduled for the Kimmel Center Presents 2009-10 season. The next concert in the series will be Video Games Live on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 3pm and 7:30pm.
Tickets for Paco Peña are $35, $45, $55 and $65 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office at 5:30pm prior to evening curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Paco Peña’s prolific 40+ year career continues to expand the boundaries of flamenco music in collaborative ventures that define its origin and international influences. His U.S. program of A Compás has received tremendous acclaim throughout the last three years, accented by a CD recording of A Compás in June 2008.
On September 3, 2009, Pena presented the world premiere of Flamenco sin Fronteras (Flamenco without Frontiers) at London’s West End. The dynamic, new program studies the interplay of flamenco Spanish music in relation to other Latin American countries, particularly Afro-Venezuelan percussive rhythms. Pena is also currently rehearsing for a collaborative folkloric fusion performance on September 21, 2009 at the ancient Herod Atticus Odeon theater in Athens, Greece with Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes and Greek rebetika guitarist Thanasis Polikandriotis.
As a guitarist, composer, dramatist and musical mentor, Paco Peña has been capturing the imagination of audiences worldwide from the Royal Albert Hall in London to New York’s famed Carnegie Hall. Peña has received international acclaim, with the longest-ever run flamenco show in London’s West End. In 1997 he was named Oficial de la Cruz de la Orden del Merito Civil, an honor bestowed by King Juan Carlos of Spain. Peña was also named the world’s first Professor of Flamenco Guitar at the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands in 1985. For five consecutive years, readers of American Guitar magazine voted the virtuoso "Best Flamenco Guitarist of the Year."
Peña, a native of the Andalucían city of Córdoba, has gained notoriety worldwide for transforming the archetypal Spanish art form with elements of classical, jazz, blues, country and Latin American music; his groundbreaking collaborations include artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Leo Kottke and sitar player Nishat Khan. Although he is now based in London, Peña still spends a significant part of the year in his native Andalucía, where part of the flamenco art form’s gypsy roots originated.
Kimmel Center Presents' 2009/10 Season is sponsored by Citi. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents.
Free in the Plaza programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.
The Kimmel Center is the recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC "Grow Up Great" initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment in preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center's early childhood program "Bop and Swing," an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS SPONSORED BY CITI
Saturday, October 3, 2009 | 3pm
Verizon Hall
World & Pop Series
A Compás! — In The Rhythm
Paco Peña, guitar
Paco Arriaga, guitar
Rafael Montilla, guitar
Angel Muñoz, dancer
Ramón Martínez, dancer
Charo Espino, dancer
Inmaculada Rivero, vocals
Javier Márquez, vocals
Nacho López, percussion
FREE AT THE KIMMEL
Saturday, October 3, 2009 | 1:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza | Free in the Plaza
> index of news releases
> For more information, and to request high resolution images for press use, send us a message online.