Grammy award-winning artist, Antonio Serrano has been hailed as one of the great geniuses of Spanish Music and is considered one of the most important harmonica players of all time. He has become a reference point for Spanish jazz and one of the most highly acclaimed musicians in the world. Serrano’s enormous versatility is reflected in the long list of collaborations with major international artists, and in the effortlessness with which he moves in musical fields as distant from each other as jazz, flamenco, tango, and classical music. He has made a hugely important contribution to Spanish music by introducing the harmonica into flamenco, and further consolidated this innovation as a key member of Paco de Lucia’s group for ten years.
The Antonio Serrano Quartet makes its debut in Cyprus, in a concert that is organised by the Pharos Arts Foundation, in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain, on Saturday 18 June 2022 / 8:30pm, at the Pharos Arts Foundation’s open-air venue, The Olive Grove in Delikipos. Antonio Serrano will join forces with Antonio de Miguel (double-bass), Pablo Gutierrez (piano) and Esteve Pi (drums), for a fascinating musical experience with excerpts from two of the Quartet’s latest projects: Tootsology – a celebration of the legendary Toots Thielemans, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, and Clazzical – an innovative fusion of the great melodies of classical music and the daring harmonies and rhythms of jazz.
ANTONIO SERRANO
Having been hailed as one of the great geniuses of Spanish Music (El Pais) and one of the most important harmonica players of all time, Grammy award-winning artist Antonio Serrano has been a reference point for Spanish jazz and one of the most highly acclaimed musicians in the world. Serrano’s enormous versatility is reflected in the long list of collaborations with major stars and world-class artists and in the effortlessness with which he moves in musical fields as distant from each other as jazz, flamenco, tango, and classical music.
Antonio Serrano first appeared in the limelight at the age of 13, when he performed in Paris with the legendary harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler at a concert for the United Nations – a show that marked the beginning of a long relationship that expanded Antonio’s already promising career. Adler became his mentor, and they performed together numerous times. At the age of 18, Serrano made a sensation by performing in Belgium Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Orchestra and Harmonica, Op.46.
Throughout his solo career, he has appeared with renowned symphony orchestras, such as those of Belgium, Cologne, Heidelberg, Kiel, among others, playing original harmonica concertos, as well as arrangements by Villa-Lobos, Vaughan Williams, Enescu, Gershwin and Rimsky-Korsakov, to name but a few. Later on, Serrano started exploring other genres, performing with blues and jazz artists, recording several albums in various musical styles, and becoming recognised as one of the best improvisers of his generation.
His increasing prominence as a virtuoso player attracted inevitably the attention of Paco de Lucía, who invited him to be a member of his group in 2004. Since then, Antonio Serrano has become famous for introducing the harmonica to the flamenco – an impregnable genre for musicians not born into its culture – and he remained in the group, touring around the world, until de Lucía’s death in 2014.
Antonio Serrano has been featured in over 500 recordings, and he participated in original soundtracks such as Pedro Almodóvar’s Carne Trémula. Serrano teaches musical improvisation courses at various European conservatories and flamenco courses at the Berklee College of Music. He also teaches at the University of Khartoum (Sudan).
When
Where The Olive Grove, Delikipos Village
Location
Information Pharos Arts Foundation
Tel.
Website
Tickets: €20 / €15 Concessions