Diego El Cigala - Program

SAT OCT 25 2014

Diego El Cigala CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORM ING ARTS AT UBC 1

“Pienso que el flamenco es tan enriquecedor por si solo que podría mantenerse por siempre. Pero cuando nos topamos con estos sonidos tan profundos del alma nos hace enseñar y expresar lo mejor de lo que cada uno lleva dentro.”

-Diego El Cigala (El País, 2013)

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PHOTO: ANYA BARTELS-SUERMONDT

“I think that flamenco is so enriching in itself that it could be maintained forever.

Once we encounter these profound sounds of the soul it makes us teach and express the best of what we have inside ourselves.”

Diego El Cigala

Presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

Pre-Concert Film Screening 6:30pm – Royal Bank Cinema Opre Roma: Gypsies in Canada Directed by Tony Papa, 1999.

Details on page 7.

Concert ~ 8:00pm - Chan Shun Concert Hall

Diego El Cigala vocals

Yelsy Heredia double bass

Isidro SuĂĄrez percussion Jumitus piano

Dan Ben Lior acoustic guitar

Set list will be announced from the stage.

The performance will consist of two 45-minute sets and one 20-minute intermission.

Please remember to turn off your cell phones, and note that photography and/or recording of any kind is not permitted.

Thank you!

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Diego El Cigala Diego El Cigala is, quite simply, the most exciting and innovative flamenco singer in the world today. Passionate, profound, and immensely proud of his Gitano heritage, El Cigala has been dubbed by many as “the Sinatra of flamenco.” His earthy, exultant and richly emotive voice marks him as one of the great singers of the last century. He is a rare crossover artist who has stayed true to his musical heritage and yet has achieved name recognition with mainstream audiences around the world.

Born into a family of flamenco musicians, El Cigala began his solo career in 1997. Four years later he was at the Latin GRAMMYS, his Corren Tiempos de Alegría nominated for Best Flamenco Album. In 2003, El Cigala’s collaboration with legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés led to a duo album, Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears), which became one of the most astonishing breakthroughs in the realm of world music. Aside from winning El Cigala his first Latin GRAMMY award (he now has three), Lágrimas Negras became a huge global hit thanks to a combination of killer live shows, rave reviews, and ecstatic word of mouth.

This groundbreaking record, with its fusion of Roma fire and complex Cuban rhythms, sold more than a million copies worldwide. Aside from winning numerous awards, the album was praised by Britain’s BBC Radio and hailed “record of the year” by The New York Times.

In 2010 El Cigala travelled to Argentina, land of the tango, to immerse himself in that country’s powerful musical traditions. After merging his own band with two of Argentina’s tango masters – bandoneon player Néstor Marconi and guitarist Juanjo Dominguez – the results were musical magic, resulting in the album Cigala & Tango.

El Cigala’s 2013 recording Romance de la Luna Tucumana offers a fresh take on the Argentinean tango tradition. It includes the contributions of Mexico’s famed electric guitarist Diego Garcia who has become known as “The Twanguero” for embracing cowboy, Hawaiian, and surf music.

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PHOTO: CLAUDIO DIVELLA

“ [El tango y el flamenco] Son músicas de dos orillas que tienen mucho que ver, son almas gemelas, generosas y sufridas. Tienen historias maravillosas en común: el amor, el dolor, la alegría, la tragedia, el desamor. Y ¿sabes? yo le pongo la música flamenca al Tango, pero nunca me atrevería a llevar la música de Tango a las letras de Flamenco jondo. Le doy énfasis e interpretación a las letras de tango, pero respetando las melodías y las letras y a tal punto está logrado que, luego de escuchar las canciones, al año de haberlas cantado, digo: “esto es nuestro”. Se ha convertido el tango en un tema flamenco y eso me sorprende a mí mismo.” “ [Tango and flamenco] is music from the edge that has so much in common; they are soul mates, generous and suffering. They have marvelous stories in common: love, pain, joy, tragedy, heartbreak.

You know? I put flamenco to tango, but I would never dare to bring tango to the lyrics of flamenco jondo. I give emphasis and interpretation to tango’s lyrics, but I respect the melody and lyrics so much that after listening to the songs, after a year of having sang them, I say: ‘this is ours’. Tango has become flamenco and that surprises me.”

- Diego El Cigala (El País, 2013) 5

Exploring the role of the arts and artists in society. chancentre.com/connects

Going New Places in Flamenco with Diego El Cigala By Eshantha Peiris As part of a new initiative, the Chan Centre is working with the UBC School of Music’s Department of Ethnomusicology to engage students in writing short pieces connecting our presentations to pertinent ideas and concepts in ethnomusicology. Here, graduate student Eshantha Peiris writes about the importance of Diego El Cigala’s music in a cultural and political context. An excerpt of this article can be found below.

As well as studying ethnomusicology, Eshantha Peiris performs with Sri Lanka-based bands Thriloka and Baliphonics. He recently released an album of solo piano music, entitled Global Rhythms Reimagined.

From the view of an ethnomusicologist, performances by musicians such as Diego El Cigala present an opportunity to examine the various layers of cultural meaning brought into focus by multicultural creativity. Examining the past may reveal a long history of foreign influences on flamenco music, in a way defending El Cigala’s innovations in the genre from the inevitable protests of flamenco purists. El Cigala’s current fame as a vocalist could also be seen as reflecting flamenco’s history as a musical style that was defined by singing (in contrast with the present-day spotlight on flamenco dancing).

When considering issues of race, it might be observed how members of the (historically oppressed) Roma minority play a disproportionally prominent role as professional musicians in Spain, and how their flamenco music has moved from the fringes of society to become a national symbol of their country. Questions can be asked about historical identity and cultural heritage, and about the expectations that global audiences may have when performers are marketed in different ways. El Cigala himself has suggested that suffering – along with being a Gitano – is the defining characteristic of singing flamenco.

While the modern global capitalist music industry has given musicians and audiences a chance to imagine alternative identities for themselves (as evident in El Cigala’s recent launch of his own record label, and migration to the Dominican Republic), it can also be seen by some as a standardizing machine which requires pandering to popular tastes.

And while noting that El Cigala’s informed choices regarding genre mixing and collaborative artists have gained him new audiences in the Americas (arguably the same audience base catered to by the Latin GRAMMY Awards), an ethnomusicologist will usually be most interested in accounting for the changing social conditions which allow for these artistic decisions to be made in the first place.

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Find the full article with detailed footnotes online at chancentre.com/blog

Exploring the role of the arts and artists in society. chancentre.com/connects

Pre-Concert Film Screening 6:30pm – Royal Bank Cinema

Opre Roma: Gypsies in Canada Directed by Tony Papa, 1999.

52 minutes.

This National Film Board of Canada documentary celebrates the vibrant culture and tenacious struggle of members of the Roma community in Canada. Meet Julia Lovell, a passionate defender of Roma human rights, whose father is slowly gaining the confidence to reveal his heritage; and Karen Grey Boothroyd, a flamenco dancer just beginning to reclaim her roots.

A brief introduction and film update by Gina Csanyi-Robah and Julia Lovell-Mohammed will precede the screening.

The Contemporary Roma Experience Inspired by Diego El Cigala’s Spanish Romani heritage to explore the culture and struggle of the diverse Romani diaspora here in Canada, the Chan Centre Connects series presented a public evening of music and discussion on October 24, 2014 at the The Cultch in collaboration with the Canadian Romani Alliance, Vancouver’s Roma community, and the University of British Columbia. We would particularly like to thank Gina Csanyi-Robah, Director of the Canadian Romani Alliance, for introducing us to members of the local Roma community and helping to curate the evening’s program.

We are grateful to the following artists and speakers for sharing their experiences, expertise, and culture with us: Diego El Cigala, Gina Csanyi-Robah, Julia Lovell-Mohammed (activist and filmmaker), Lache Cercel (violinist) and musicians, Zak Santiago (actor, DJ), Florian Botos (visual artist), Dr. Shayna Plaut (Liu Institute Alumna, UBC.), Dr. Daniel Radulescu (Sastipen European Network), and Daniel Manson (PHD student – Anthropology, UBC).

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UBC School of Music Fanfares The fanfare performed in the lobby prior to this concert (7:30pm and 7:45pm) was commissioned by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts as part of an ongoing partnership with the UBC School of Music and their composition students and performers.

¡Andalucía!

“This fanfare is an exploration of some of the hallmarks of Andalusian music. As a respectful nod to Diego El Cigala and the tremendous flamenco tradition, this piece intentionally references recognizable and familiar structures like the Andalusian cadence and prominent use of the altered phrygian mode. To then imbue my own artistic character into the music, I intentionally accentuate ‘natural’ dissonances and experiment with some of the chromatic cross-relations which frequently appear in flamenco. The result is, I hope, a cross-cultural hybrid which will provide everyone with an interesting (and hopefully enjoyable) listening experience.” – Lucas Oickle, composer Lucas Oickle is an award-winning Nova Scotian composer currently based in Vancouver where he is finishing his M.Mus. at UBC. For more information about his awards and compositions, please visit lucasoickle.com.

Ben Thauland trumpet Nicholas Robson trumpet Theresa Lei horn

Kevin Lin trombone Jon Yenta tuba

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The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC Joyce Hinton Cameron McGill Jazel Argente Carl Armstrong Wendy Atkinson Brad Danyluk Kara Gibbs David Humphry Beng Khoo Flora Lew Glenda Makela Trevor Mangion Claire Mohun Christine Offer George Pereira Andrew Riter Nadia Roberts Lyndsey Townsend

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