Rafael Cortes Trio - Guitarra flamenca

In the organizer's words:

Guitarra flamenco with the Rafael Cortés Trio
Rafael Cortés' musical style in flamenco is characterized by the retention of old, original flamenco traditions with the further development of modern playing techniques. His playing is characterized as passionate and modern, but he does not deviate from the classical flamenco style and retains its elements. His technique enables him to convey a wide range of emotions to his listeners and today Rafael Cortés is regarded as one of the greatest hopes of international flamenco. He lives in Essen.

Rafael Cortés (born December 21, 1973 in Gelsenkirchen) is a Spanish-German guitarist and master of the flamenco guitar. He comes from a flamenco dynasty and is the grandson of the famous flamenco player Octavio Cortés Maya. Rafael Cortés has a son who also bears his name and, like his father, is a flamenco guitarist; during the Franco era, his grandparents emigrated to Germany, where his parents also met. His father came from Granada and his mother from Asturias. Frequent visits to his father's family home and the roots of flamenco shaped his childhood and youth as well as his relationship with music. Many flamenco guitarists came to him there, who showed him a wide variety of techniques and special features, and he accompanied his father, who also played flamenco, at the age of four and gave his first concerts with him. At the age of nine, he began taking part in performances by various artists on stage and accompanying the dance.
accompany the dance. At the same time, he began to take intensive lessons with the guitar teachers Ángel Martínez and "El Macareno". The latter dismissed him when he was 14 years old, stating that he already had incredible talent and a very good playing technique. He had learned everything that lay within his teacher's ability and was accordingly fully trained.
Rafael Cortés had his "breakthrough" with his first solo concert at the Zeche Carl in 1985 at the age of eleven. After this performance, his career developed rapidly and his musical career has been characterized by numerous concerts and studio recordings. In 1999, Rafael Cortés released his first solo album, Eclipse de Luna, and began touring from then on.
Rafael Cortés has also composed film music, for example for "Trouville Beach". He has also worked with numerous other flamenco artists, including Diego el Cigala, El Piraña, Javier Barón, Concha Vargas, Carmen Ledesma, Jonathan Darlington, José de Lucia and many others from the international scene. Other great musicians, such as Carles Benavent, Al Di Meola and Tommy Emmanuel, became aware of him early on and asked him for collaborations, while the Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucía, who shaped his flamenco playing with new elements of classical music and jazz, had a great influence on Rafael Cortés. He was inspired by this different style and combined his temperament with his playing. He also integrates the Latin style into his musical work and uses his flamenco guitar in a variety of ways.[1] Today, Rafael Cortés shows off his technique as well as his music and playing style on social media, for example on the YouTube, TikTok and Instagram platforms.Rafael Cortés himself sees it as an advantage not to have grown up in Spain, as there - unlike in the Ruhr region - they don't have so many different cultures on their doorstep. Influenced by his own and the surrounding culture, Rafael Cortés was asked to fly to Paris in 2010 as a cultural ambassador to play a concert at UNESCO.