Flamenco is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Murcia. In a wider sense, the term is used to refer to a variety of both contemporary and traditional musical styles typical of southern Spain. Flamenco is closely associated to the gitanos of the Romani ethnicity who have contributed significantly to its origination and professionalization. However, its style is uniquely Andalusian and flamenco artists have historically included Spaniards of both gitano and non-gitano heritage.
Vicenç Montoliu i Massana, better known as Tete Montoliu was a Spanish jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. Born blind, he learnt braille music at age seven. His styles varied from hard bop, through afro-Cuban, world fusion, to post bop. He recorded with Lionel Hampton in 1956 and played with saxophonist Roland Kirk in 1963. He also worked with leading American jazz musicians who toured in, or relocated to Europe including Kenny Dorham, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Lucky Thompson, and Anthony Braxton. Tete Montoliu recorded two albums in the US, and recorded for Enja, SteepleChase Records, and Soul Note in Europe.
Kayhan Kalhor is an Iranian Kurdish kamancheh and setar player, and a vocal composer. He has received three Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album nominations. Kalhor also has earned two nominations and won one Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album as a member of the Silk Road Ensemble.
Carlos Lundi Wrokona was a Spanish-born composer and conductor.
Joachim-Yehoyachin Stutschewsky was a Ukraine-born and Israeli cellist, composer, musicologist.
Lluís Claret is an Andorran cellist. He was born in Andorra in 1951 where he began his musical education at the age of 9. In 1964 he moved to Barcelona, won major distinctions at the Conservatory of the Liceu, and began working with Enric Casals. Claret continued his studies in France, Italy and in the USA. Throughout his career he has been especially committed to chamber music.
Joan Albert Amargós is a Spanish composer and conductor born in Barcelona in 1950. Amargós is an instrumentalist on piano and clarinet, and has composed a number of chamber and symphonic works. He is also a great connoisseur of Flamenco, which has served as the basis for some of his compositions, which always breathe a brightness and colour distinctly Mediterranean.
Francisco Casanovas Tallardá was a Spanish conductor, composer, pedagogue, clarinetist, saxophonist and flautist.
Manuel Ausensi i Albalat was a Catalan baritone opera singer.
Joaquín Zamacois y Soler was a Chilean-Spanish composer, music teacher and author. He comes from a well-known family of Spanish artists.
Ali Khattab is an Egyptian composer and guitarist. In his works, he combines the elements of two musical worlds and traditions: The Arab-Oriental and the Gypsy-Andalusian, flamenco. From the age of seventeen, the time when he first starts performing on stage, everything he does is meant to lead him to two places: the cradle of flamenco, Jerez de la Frontera. From then on, Ali spends a lot of time in Andalucia, meeting and performing with influential flamenco musicians, singers, guitarists, and dancers who introduce him to the true universe of flamenco. Following a tour in Spain and the middle east, Ali Khattab's first album named "Al Zarqa", was released in March 2010 in Madrid, Spain. In a recent radio interview the artist explained that his music as the name of his album is like a blue eyed brunette a mix of two worlds in perfect harmony.
Miguel Ángel Poveda León is a Spanish flamenco singer known by his stage name Miguel Poveda.
Francesc Viñas i Dordal was a Spanish operatic tenor. He is also known by the Spanish version of his name, Francisco Viñas and the Italian version, Francesco Vignas. He was particularly known for his performances in the operas of Richard Wagner and sang in the first post-embargo production of Parsifal outside Bayreuth.
Enric Palomar is a Catalan composer.
Lluís Millet i Pagès was a Spanish Catalan composer, musician and co-founder of Orfeó Català in 1891.
Gani is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Sergio Pamies is a Spanish jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, who has published four albums under his name, and appears in several recordings as a sideman.
Lena Chamamyan is a Syrian singer-songwriter, known for her soprano voice and unique style, which fuses jazz, Arabic folk music and Western classical music.
Marià Obiols, also known as Mariano Obiols, was a Catalan composer, conductor, and professor of music. He served as the music director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona from its founding in 1847 until his death. A protégé of Saverio Mercadante, he composed three operas, the cantata Il regio imeneo which inaugurated the Liceu theatre, art songs, chamber music, and several pieces of sacred music. His vocal music was largely Italianate in style, reflecting his years of study in Italy as well as the influence of Mercadante. As a professor at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu, Obiols influenced the development numerous singers, composers, and conductors and wrote books on piano and solfège methods which became standard texts at the conservatory.
Gabriel Balarti Crehuet was a Spanish composer, conductor, musical director and teacher of Catalan origin. He was born in Barcelona on 8 June 1824 and died there on 5 July 1893. He studied at the Paris Conservatory before composing several pieces of salon music. He wrote five romantic symphonies. His most successful opera was his light opera Amore y Arte.
