On Friday, March 18 at 8:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall presents Sevillian cantaora Rosario Guerrero "La Tremendita" and Iranian traditional vocalist Mohammad Motamedi in a program entitled Qasida. Qasida refers to the musical fusion of Spanish folk songs and Persian high art that invokes the spirit of Al-Andalus-the cultural center of the Arab-Iberian world where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in relative harmony for nearly 700 years. For this performance La Tremendita and Motamedi are accompanied by musicians from Spain and Iran: Salvador Gutiérrez (guitar), Sina Jahanabadi (kamancheh), Pablo Martín Jones (percussion), Habib Meftah Boushehri (percussion), Oruco (palmas), and Tremendo (palmas).
This concert is presented by
Carnegie Hall in partnership with
Robert Browning Associates LLC and Flamenco Festival, Inc. and is part of the Flamenco Festival taking place throughout New York City from March 2-19, 2016. The festival presents Spain's finest singers, dancers, and musicians along with cultural activities and educational programs at venues city-wide. Flamenco Festival events presented by
Carnegie Hall also include Vicente Amigo, the composer, producer, and master of flamenco guitar on Friday, March 4 at 8:00 p.m. and conductor Pablo Heras-Casado leading Orchestra of
St. Luke's in "Colors of Spain" featuring singer Marina Heredia and pianist Javier Perianes on Thursday, March 10 at 8:00 p.m.
Rosario Guerrero "La Tremendita," from the Triana district in Seville, Spain, hails from a musical family; she is the great granddaughter of Enriqueta la Pescaera, grandniece of La Gandinga de Triana, and daughter of José El Tremendo. She sang from an early age in fiestas and peñas and went on to conduct her own research on flamenco singing while studying music theory and piano. She developed her reputation in the most important competitions, including Nacional de Córdoba,
Antonio Mairena, and La Unión, and sang with such distinguished dancers as Belén Maya, Rocío Molina, Rafaela Carrasco, and Andrés Marín. In 2008, after six years of collaborating with dance companies, she became a solo artist and began composing. Today, La Tremendita presents and directs shows and contributes her talent to the creativity of artists such as Rocío Molina and Javier Ruibal. Her albums include the critically acclaimed A tiempo and the 2014 Latin Grammy Award-nominated Fatum.
Mohammad Motamedi is a leading exponent of Persian classical singing from Iran's younger generation. Born in Kâshân (south of Tehran), he has been immersed in Persian music from an early age. A self-taught ney player and vocalist, he began learning Persian traditional singing in the style of Hussein Taher Zadeh under the supervision of Hamid Reza Nourbakhsh. He went on to continue his studies with Alireza Lotfi. Taking inspiration from the classical Esfahan style of Persian singing of such illustrious artists as Tâje Esfahani and Ali Akbar Khân Shahnâzi, the young prodigy explored the depths of the radif, the classical system of Persian music based on 12 musical modes (dastg?h) and composed of 450 modal figures (gushe). He has participated with many ensembles including The Sun, led by Maestro Majid Derakhshani; Sheyda, directed by Maestro Mohammad Reza Lotfi; the Iran National Orchestra; and the Mehr ensemble, which he founded. In 2011, the Dutch Flamenco Biennial approached him and Spanish flamenco singer Rosario Guerrero "La Tremendita" to create Qasida, which has since toured Europe. He won the prestigious Radio France Musique World Music Award in 2013, and is currently touring Iran with tar master Hossein Alizâdeh.
