The artists
Aruán Ortiz
Piano, Musical Direction
Born in Santiago de Cuba, Aruán’s music is inspired by an array of influences from Afro-Cuban and Afro-Haitian traditions, avant-garde, progressive jazz, and contemporary classical language. He expands stylistic boundaries, highlighting the Afro-Caribbean experience as the center of his musical narrative.
He holds an MFA in music composition from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he was awarded the Composer Fellow Award in 2016. Aruán is also a Doris Duke Impact Awardee (2014) and Composers Now Fellow (2016). He has written music for jazz ensembles, classical orchestras, dance companies, classical chamber groups, and feature films.
Aruán was lauded as "one of the most creative and original composers in the world" by Lynn René Bailey in The Art Music Lounge; and "an experimentalist and a tonal provocateur, influenced by European modernism and contemporary jazz as much as by Afro-Cuban tradition" by Giovanni Russonello of the New York Times.
malika zarra
Voice
Award-winning singer, composer, producer and multi-cultural shape-shifter. An artist with a velvety and sinuous mezzo-soprano voice, Malika has demonstrated a rare ability to communicate both powerful and subtle ideas and feelings in Berber, Moroccan Arabic, French, and English. Born in Southern Morocco, in a little village called Ouled Teima and raised in Paris, her father's family was originally from Tata, a city on the Sahara plain, while her mother was a Berber from the High Atlas. Malika has recorded and/or performed with Makoto Ozone, John Zorn, Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Tommy Campbell, Will Calhoun, Lonnie Plaxico, Michael Cain, Brad Jones, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Gretchen Parlato and many others.
susana ortA
Voice
Born in Havana, Cuba, Susana traveled around the world for 12 years with the Cuban vocal group Novel Voz. The ensemble was awarded best vocal group of Cuba in the 2005 Cubadisco Record Fair. In 2011, she left Cuba and settled in Switzerland, where she quickly joined the traditional Siga Volando Charanga Orchestra. Due to her talent as a soloist, she worked with other groups and projects such as the Septeto Internacional, Buena Fe, Gala Mayor Band, Cesar Correa, and many others. Today’s expert critics place her within the tradition of great Cuban singers such as Celia Cruz or Omara Portuondo.
george ziadeh
Oud
George Ziadeh is a Palestinian American vocalist/oudist, composer, and educator residing in New York City. He started his career at a young age, singing and playing the oud from the age of 12. His expertise is on the maqam repertoire from the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Cairo and Aleppo and more recently the Baghdadi maqam tradition. In addition to being a classical maqam performer, he has collaborated with different artists in a range of genres: from jazz, classical Indian traditions such as raga, flamenco to Afro-Cuban music. He has performed with Amir el Saffar, Hamid al Saadi, and the National Arabic Orchestra among many others, and has performed widely in Europe, America, and the Middle East.
ismael de la rosa
Voice
Ismael de la Rosa González, known artistically as “El Bola” (Seville, 1995) was surrounded by flamenco artists from an early age. His family, the Fernandez’s, from the Triana neighborhood, has an extensive artistic tradition. At only 7 years old, he collaborated in the “4 Generaciones,” a tribute to Bernarda de Utrera in Seville and Japan, and the following year, in “Canciones antes de una Guerra” (Maria Pagés), in Jerez and Sevilla. Ismael has shared the stage with great artists such as Juan Amaya, Jose Valencia, and El Capullo de Jerez, among others. He collaborated with José Anillo on his latest album and has performed in presentations of Esperanza Fernández’s album at the Lope de Vega theater in Seville, along with Pastora Galván and David Dorantes.
martin melÉndez
Cello
Martín Meléndez was born in Moscow to Cuban parents. He began his music studies on the cello at an early age at the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán and later at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. A natural improvisor, his musical tastes take inspiration from Jazz, Cuban Music, Funk, and later Flamenco. He is a member of the Aupa Quartet, Carlos Saura’s company Flamenco Hoy and has participated for 7 years in the Ópera y Flamenco show (Rafael Amargo). He has collaborated in recordings and shared stage with artists such as: Pablo Milanés, Chano Dominguez, Macaco, Dorantes, Renuad Garcia-Fons, Yusa, Descemer Bueno, Antonio Rey, Kiko Veneno, Ernesto Aurignac, Reynald Colom, Kinan Azmeh among others, playing in many parts of the world, Canada, Australia, Chile, Turkey, Russia, China, Argentina, Germany, to name a few.
fernando favier
Percussion
Born in Guantánamo, Cuba and graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba in 1994 in percussion, Fernando is a member of the "PERCUBA" Society of Cuban percussionists and a founder of the band of the renowned Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Varela. In 1998, he settled in Madrid where he became an active part of the European and international music scene. Fernando is one of the most prestigious musicians in his specialty, "drums-percussion" in the Latin, Flamenco, Jazz and Pop genres. In 2018, he released his first solo album, "Bulerias Of My Town," 12 tracks that showcase the music that has influenced his career. Fernando has collaborated with artists such as Joaquín Cortés, Alejandro Sanz, Café Quijano, Pitingo, José Mercé, Concha Buika, Niña Pastori, Lolita, Antonio Carmona, Luis Enrique, Paquito D'Rivera, Angelique Kidjo, Gema y Pavel, and Hessischer Rundfunkn.
yomar amador
Percussion
Born in Pinar del Rio Cuba. Began to develop his interest in art from a very early age, first as a dancer and later as a musician as part of the Rumayor orchestra in his hometown.
As a professional he has been part of the best of Afro-Cuban folklore and Cuban jazz such as Danza Nacional de Cuba, Emiliano Salvador, Gabriel Hernández, Grupo Mezcla, Lázaro Ros, Orlando Sánchez Soto Cuba jazz and other important ones.
In 1998 he moved to Europe, as a musician and teacher he has taken part in several Afro-Cuban Folklore festivals and has performed with figures such as Compay Segundo, Maelo Ruiz, Guili González, Acosta Dance Company, directed by the famous dancer Carlos Acosta Junior, Roberto Carcaces, Pancho Terry, Aruan Ortiz and his Criollo Flamenco Project, and shared the stage with artists of the stature of Herbie Hancock, Chano Domínguez, Elian Elías, Carmen Paris.
MARÍA MORENO
Dancer
Born in Cádiz, 1986. She began her studies at the Cádiz Professional Dance Conservatory, with teachers Javier Latorre, Antonio Canales and Eva Yerbabuena.
María is a rapidly rising star, she has received the Revelation Prize of the Festival de Jerez in 2017, the Giraldillo Revelation of the Bienal de Sevilla 2018, and PAD Awards (The Association of Dance Companies and Professionals). She has been nominated three times for the Max Awards for Performing Arts.
Her unique shows have been presented in theaters such as Sadler's Wells in London, Paris Villette, Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, Russkaya Pesnya in Russia, Teatro Romano de Baelo Claudia, Suma Flamenca in Madrid and at the Festival de Danza Itálica in Sevilla.
inor sotolongo
Percussion
Born in Cuba and educated in Havana at the Manuel Saumell Academy and Amadeo Roldán, Inor is one of a select group of musicians whose skills are in constant evolution and allow him to devote himself to the most audacious experimentation. While studying in Cuba, he played with great artists such as Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodriguez, José M. Vitier, José Luis Quintana "Changuito", Tata Güines, Miguel "Angá" Díaz, Orlando "Maraca" Valle, and Ernan Lopez-Nussa's quartet. Inor moved to France in 2001 where he has played with many artists, including Andy Narell, Deep Forest, Zucchero, Omar Sosa, Mory Kanté, Manu Dibango, Paco Sery, Mokhtar Samba, Emilio Santiago, Ramiro Musotto, Elza Soares, Chano Dominguez, Mayra Andrade, David Sanchez, Daniela Mercury, Carlinhos Brown, Michel Fugain, Yilian Cañizares, Catherine, WDR Big Band, Les Amazones d'Afrique, and many others. He also has collaborated with Michel Camillo, Dave Koz, N'Dea Davenport, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Montell Jordan, Bonnie Raitt, Paddy Maloney, Luis Eduardo Aute, and Carlos Benavent.
NIURKA AGÜero
Dancer
Niurka Aguero, Santiago de Cuba, 1973.
Studied at Vocational School of Art Eva Jose Maria Heredia in Santiago de Cuba and National School of Art in Havana. After graduating as a dancer, teacher and choreographer of modern and folkloric dance, she started working at Danza del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba under the direction of acclaimed choreographer Eduardo Rivero, where she was first dancer.
After traveling extensively with the company she relocated in Italy where she teaches.