Événement

La Peña Flamenca de Portland Presents: ¡Baila, canta, toca!

¡Baila, canta, toca! feat. Brenna McDonald

w/
Pepe Raphael (cante)
Jed Miley (toque)
Christina Lorentz (baile)
Lillie Last (baile)
Nick Hutch (percussion)

Our final Peña flamenca for the 2017 Cafe Artichoke series features the dancing of Portland's flamenco triple threat Brenna McDonald. With special guest guitarist Jed Miley (Seattle, WA), piquant cantaor Pepe Raphael, and Espacio Flamenco's Christina Lorentz, Lillie Last, and Nick Hutcheson. Join us for an unforgettable evening of flamenco!

Brenna McDonald
Brenna began studying flamenco in 1997 with Martita Santiago (baile) and Jaime Woods (guitar) in Eugene, Oregon. Since then she has devoted her life to the study of flamenco, moving to Spain in 2003-2004 to study with Chiqui de Jerez and Jose Luis Balao and in 2008-2009 to study under Juan and Saray de los Reyes. Brenna started performing in 2004 with Solo Flamenco while pursuing her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Reed College ('06). Brenna has performed and collaborated with Flamenco Callejero, El Cuadro Gallo, Madjaleo, Assa Flamenco, Tablao de Rosas. She is a founding member of La Peña Flamenca de Portland and Espacio Flamenco where she teaches flamenco dance and guitar at Espacio Flamenco and co-organizes the Espacio Flamenco performance company.

Pepe Raphael
Pepe Raphael's piquant pulsations have taken him from Madrid, Spain (where he was born) to New York City (where he performed) to Portland (where he now lives). Born in Madrid, Spain, Pepe began his dance career with the National Ballet of Spain. He then worked with Ballet Liceo of Barcelona and upon moving to the United States, danced with Ballet Hispanico of New York, Princeton Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and, most recently, Oregon Ballet Theatre. Pepe has performed locally with the Portland Opera Company, Music Theater of Oregon, The Musical Theater Company and most recently with The Oregon Symphony. Former front man and leading male vocalist with Pink Martini. He continues to rely heavily on the Bottle Blondes to continue the tradition also known as Pepe & The Bottle Blondes. Along with his ballet, opera and musical theater experience, Pepe has also appeared in several made for TV movies and has been a featured stand-up comedian at Harvey's comedy club for the last five years.

Jed Miley
Jed Miley is a Flamenco guitarist, composer, producer and teacher based in Seattle. He began playing Flamenco guitar in 1996, after hearing a recording of Sabicas. In Seattle, Jed was lucky to find Marcos Carmona as his first Flamenco guitar teacher and later worked in La Pena Flamenca de Seattle with Rubina Carmona. In 2003, he moved to New York where he worked professionally for several years, playing at prestigious venues including Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Joes Pub, Caramoor Festival, Jacobs Pillow and various tablaos. In 2009, Jed joined Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana and performed, toured and acted as a teaching artist with the company for three years. In 2011, Jed travelled to Spain as a producer of the documentary, Hola, Flamenco that aired at the Philadelphia independent film festival in the summer of 2012. He recently finished producing a Flamenco/Jazz fusion album for the guitarist Nathan Herrera, Sueños, which was released in January 2012, and his own Flamenco Rock band Dientes de Caramelo released their debut album, Pulpo, in March 2012. Since returning to Seattle, Jed has been working on creating his new recording studio, Pinche Studios, which opened in 2013.