Azucena Flamenco is the collaboration of dancer Tomomi Ozaki, guitarist Oscar Robles Diaz, and vocalist Brittany Christina Bowman. Sharing a common love for the art of flamenco, they are skilled performers whose presentations always prove passionate and memorable. Note that this will not only be Azucena Flamenco’s first performance in Studio Live but also the first time ever that Studio Live hosts a flamenco show!
=0D=0A=Advance tickets ($15) are available at Bop City Records (Courtenay), Riders Pizza (Cumberland) and the Church Street Bakery (Comox).
=0D=0A=Azucena Flamenco has performed consecutive years at the Victoria Flamenco Festival and at the Sid Williams theatre in Courtenay as well as at numerous large-scale Comox Valley community celebrations including the Comox Valley Multicultural Festival, and the City of Courtenay’s Centennial and Canada Day Celebrations, bringing liveliness and fun with Spanish-themed flair. But catching one of their performances in a venue as intimate as Studio Live promises to be exceptional and something else entirely, as the atmosphere allows for maximum self-expression and connection amongst performers as well between performers and audience. Taking full advantage of this, Azucena Flamenco has carefully prepared a repertoire that showcases a rich range of flamenco palos (song forms) - Alegrias, Soleares, Fandangos de Huelva, Tangos de Malaga, Seguiriyas and Sevillanas, to name a few - each with a distinct sound and feeling.
=0D=0A=With over 20 years of dancing flamenco under her belt, Tomomi Ozaki has studied with many internationally renowned Flamenco dancers from Spain including José Galván, Adrián Galia, Eva La Yerbabuena, Juana Amaya, Angelita Vargas, El Toleo and Susana Escoda. She teaches flamenco dance locally in the Comox Valley at Triple Heat Dance Academy as well as at the Comox Valley Flamenco Studio. She has performed in Japan and Canada. Guitarist Oscar Robles Diaz grew up exposed to some of the richness of Spanish music and dance traditions as celebrated by his parents and grandparents at many lively and memorable family gatherings in his native country of Mexico.
=0D=0A=A versatile instrumentalist, Oscar has toured throughout Central and South America as well as in Canada and Taiwan. His first studies on acoustic guitar began at a young age and in the Classical realm and led him to further his studies in the Classical music program at UNAM – Mexico’s National Autonomous University. In contrast, his approach to learning flamenco guitar has been largely auto-didactic, though he has benefited from some instruction by internationally-acclaimed guitarists Emanuel Mora from Mexico and Jesus Alvarez from Spain. Vocalist Brittany Christina Bowman has studied with flamenco singer from Spain Miguel Rosendo, and she has performed in Mexico, Canada and Taiwan.
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