Sunday 17 November, 6.00pm
Guitars and Galleons… Where Flamenco and the New World met.
TV reporter Ian Sinclair will be stepping out on the stage at Pah Homestead, but he’ll be leaving his camera behind. Ian has long led a secret life… as a flamenco guitarist. Last year Ian stepped back from his role on TVNZ’s SUNDAY Programme to follow his flamenco dream.
Ian says it was his maestro, and friend Juan, who inspired him to do it.
“I had read so much about Juan and his famous clan of flamenco artists in Seville, but never dreamed I would ever get the chance to actually meet him, let alone be accepted for study.”
“Flamenco is incredibly exciting but also incredibly complicated. I have been warned one person can never ever master all of it.”
Guitars and Galleons is their latest project, featuring Chilean singer Sebastian Gonzalez. Sebastian is an icon in New Zealand’s 40,000-strong Latin American community. It is the story of how Spanish explorers carried the music of Spain to the New World, where it mixed with Afro-Cuban and other rhythms, returning to create new sounds in Spanish Flamenco.
Isla Flamenca debuted in July 2018. In a very short time the band has become something totally different in the Auckland music scene: an instrumental group with strong traditional Flamenco roots. They play everything from simple dances like Sevillanas and Rumba to important Flamenco forms like Alegrias and Bulerias. Their sound is traditional Flamenco but with a modern rhythmical tinge that borrows from Jazz and Cuban music.
Ian Sinclair has spent a lifetime studying this highly rhythmical Spanish music. He is a pupil and friend of flamenco maestro Juan del Gastor of Seville. He has written most of the instrumental music for Isla Flamenca. Recently he dropped his role as a TV reporter to tour New Zealand with the Spanish troupe of Isabel Rivera Cuenca.
Steve Cournane is a drummer/composer who began playing in Flying Nun bands in 1984. He won a Tui with CLBOB for NZ Jazz album of the year in 2002. In 2007 he moved to Lima, Peru, where he lived as a musician and studied the traditional Afro-criollo cajon for seven years. This eventually led him to Flamenco music with Ian.
Don’t miss this rare chance to compare the pulsating rhythms and haunting harmonies of flamenco and Latin American music. Featuring flamenco guitarist Ian Sinclair and Latin jazz percussionist Steve Cournane, with guest singer Sebastian Gomez.
Tickets: $30 / $15 concession.
Click here to read more about Ian Sinclair and Isla Flamenca
Click here to read a North & South article about Ian
