Guitar-playing professor brings flamenco out of the classroom and onto world stage

Friday, November 15, 1996

MUSIC:

Mixed music and dance troupe to captivate audiences at
WadsworthBy Nerissa Pacio

Daily Bruin Contributor

While laid-back listeners in a smokey, dimly-lit blues hall
await the angst-filled songs of B.B. King, flamenco fans worldwide
are at the edge of their seats waiting for Spanish guitarist Paco
Peña to play his own kind of fast-paced blues.

"Flamenco is similar to the blues," Peña says. "It has a
tinge of sadness, an element of fight and rebellion. It is pain and
suffering with explosions of great happiness. It is a symbol of
Spain."

Peña’s Flamenco Company, consisting of four Spanish
guitarists, two dancers and one singer, travel around the world
sharing what Peña calls the "true spirit of flamenco." Their
latest stop is Los Angeles, where the troupe will perform "Flamenco
in Concert" Saturday at the Veterans Wadsworth Theater.

Peña and his company of dancers, guitarists and singers
strive to exude the warmth of precise sounds and choreographed
rhythms of Peña’s childhood at sold-out performances
throughout the world.

The first half of Saturday’s performance begins with a guitar
solo by Peña, followed by a gradual incorporation of the
accompanying guitarists and finally the dancers.

The second half gathers all the performers into a show that
Peña says is "fully flamenco."

"Even though it is flamenco dance, it is musical dance,"
Peña says, emphasizing the musical elements of the
evening.

As a professor at Rotterdam Conservatory, Peña enjoys
teaching students the art of flamenco. However, Peña’s true
love is playing his guitar and traveling around the world to
perform.

"Traveling exposes you to different people from whom you can
learn. My travel experiences come back to my music. In fact,
everything inspires my musical compositions. Flamenco deals with
serious emotions of mankind, and I feel I am in tune with my music
in that sense," Peña says.

Although Peña says he is a very optimistic person, the
music he plays stems from the cries of a people who struggled
against discrimination in Andalusia. What captivates Peña is
the ability to beautify such pain into music, especially that of
flamenco music.

Peña’s own personal struggle deals with his musical
refinement. While critics from the New York Times to the Washington
Post rave of Peña’s amazing technical abilities, Peña
still maintains his greatest challenge as a performer is playing
his guitar.

"There may be gifted musicians out there, but I feel I have to
work all the time to keep it alive," Peña says. He seeks to
devise different perspectives each time he plays. After having
recently performed with a larger group, Peña’s present
artistic challenge is to shift the performance from a larger to
smaller company without minimizing the show.

Although Peña presently enjoys working within a company
atmosphere, he did not always prefer playing within a group as a
business. He recalls a time in the beginning of his career when he
experienced his own moments of blues."I was naive and disillusioned
by the life of a company musician. I expected people to be perfect,
which was stupid, and when I saw that some people were not seeking
artistic endeavors, I felt I was wasting my time and decided to
play on my own," Peña says.

From such disillusionment Peña stumbled upon a flourishing
career as a soloist. "It was all quite by accident," he says. This
fortunate "accident" lead Peña to record various solo releases
and enabled him to be named one of Billboard magazine’s Top 10
Crossover Artists of 1988. Peña appreciates such recognition
of flamenco taking hold of the people. "Flamenco elements are even
expressed in pop culture, with pop elements in music these days,"
Peña says.

As his dancers whirl and click their heels, the musicians strum
their guitars and his singer’s voice radiates the sounds of
flamenco, Peña says his ultimate goal is to bring joy and
relaxation to his audience, and to allow people to discover what he
represents.

"My message is not a crusade pointing out that flamenco is the
greatest contribution to the world of music," says Peña, "I
just want people to feel as they are exposed to it ­ they will
either love it or hate it."

DANCE: Paco Peña’s company will be performing Saturday 8
p.m. at the Wadsworth Theater. Tickets are $30, $20, $11 students.
For more info, call 825-2101.

UCLA Center for the Performing Arts

Guitarist Paco Peña presents "Flamenco in Concert."

"My travel experiences come back to my music."

Paco Peña

Flamenco Guitarist

"Flamenco elements are even expressed in pop culture, with …
elements in music these days."

Paco Peña