Lara Wong & Melón Jiménez

Event Details

Event type: All Ages / Licensed

Award-winning flutist and bansuri player, Lara Wong and flamenco guitarist, Melón Jiménez, make flamenco their universal musical language to traverse musical territories. Their music ebbs and flows with elegance and emotive power, as they fuse the soul of flamenco with the harmonic brilliance of jazz and the rhythmic improvisations of Indian music. 

"…the result is stunning; it is fluid, it is sensual and fully embodies the spirit of flamenco: virtuosity and passion" - CBC Radio-Canada

Wong is a distinctive and promising musical voice who studied flamenco in Andalusia after completing her degree in classical and jazz performance at McGill University. Over the years, she has become a respected figure in the flamenco scene, best known for playing flamenco music on the Indian bansuri flute. Lara is also the winner of the “Filon" first prize award for best flamenco instrumentalist of the Festival Cante de las Minas, making her the first foreigner to win in any category of the festivals 60 year history. Wong's approach is a natural fit for guitarist Melón Jiménez, who first extensively explored the intersections of flamenco and classical Indian music as a member of Anoushka Shankar's Traveller Band in 2013. Jiménez was born into a musically and culturally diverse family that encouraged him to learn the music of his Andalusian gypsy roots and to use the flamenco guitar as a doorway to innovation. His musical versatility has led to collaborations with artists of all genres such as: Enrique Morente, Richard Bona, Niña Pastori, and Jorge Pardo. 

​This groundbreaking duo first met on stage in 2018 in the flamenco jazz capital of Madrid. There was an instant connection and an intuitive understanding that Wong and Jiménez shared compatible musical visions. The rest, as they say, is history and they have been creating beautiful, transformative music together ever since. Together they have performed across Europe and America in festivals such as, Vancouver Folk Festival, Mariposa Festival, Suma Flamenca, Festival de Tradiciones du Monde, SunFest, and many more.

​"Melón Jiménez is a guitarist to watch. He has an alluring style that presents prodigiously performed, masterfully crafted compositions, exposing guitar complexities and a skill for bridging tradition and modernity" - World Music Central

​"Emanating on-stage magnetism and artistic talent” - Historia de un Amor: Flamenco Jazz

​"Wong stands out on the flamenco scene" - Ottawa Citizen

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