ABOUT
RICARDO GARCIA

Of Andalucian origin, Ricardo's family left for France during the Franco years. Flamenco was a way of holding on to roots and the whole family was brought up within the tradition: Ricardo learning guitar from his uncle Antonio from a very young age and later performing with his aunt, Ana Maria, brothers and cousins. His mother, Maria del Carmen is an excellent singer and he accompanied her from an early age. His father, Dionisio, encouraged him and bullied him alternately as a child, making sure he practised regularly and taking the whole family back to his hometown of Morón de la Frontera near Sevilla every summer in order to experience first-hand the music and soul of the region.

Morón is one of the cradles of Flamenco and was the home of Diego del Gastor, Master and Creator of the guitar style that Morón is famous for.
Ricardo’s first public performance was at the age of nine and he has played regularly in public ever since. He continued to perform both solo and with his aunt Ana Maria and uncle Antonio in numerous concerts throughout France. In 1988, he was chosen to represent France culturally on a tour around Uruguay and Argentina, sponsored by the Casa de America Latina.Whilst still a student he performed in the Zenith in Paris fronting a Pat Metheny concert, with an audience of 7,000 which inspired him to incorporate elements of jazz into his repertoire.

Between the ages of 15 and 18 he attended flamenco masterclasses with Merengue de Cordoba, Paco Serrano and Jose Antonio Rodrigues Munoz. His studies with his uncle and on various intensive residential guitar courses focused heavily on classical guitar at this stage and the three cornerstones to his personal style are flamenco, classical and jazz.

Ricardo acknowledges his debt to masters such as Paco de Lucia and Tomatito, the great masters of guitar in flamenco today.

Ricardo worked in Malawi, Africa for eight years before returning to Europe and settling in Spain, in Barcelona in 1999. The years in Malawi brought him into contact with many other musicians and again widened his repertoire to incorporate African rhythms as well as Asian. He worked especially with Aaron Sangala and the late, great Tione Mwera. A creative collaboration with a sitar player, Bimal Lohd, resulted in several excellent concerts. With Aaron Sangala and Bashir Sacranie Ricardo was a founding member of the group Tia Kalulu, mentioned in The Rough Guide to Music in Africa. Both solo and in cooperation with others, Ricardo frequently performed at the French Cultural centre, The British Council and the two beautiful concert halls in the University of Malawi. A very important figure at this time was Prof Mitch Strumpf, the Professor of Music at the University of Malawi, who encouraged Ricardo and stretched his boundaries. He had played with Black Pasely and the Lucky Stars, high points!​

Returning to Europe in 1999, Ricardo settled in Barcelona and continues to travel mainly between Spain, France and Scotland to perform. He has also performed in Canada, Asia, the United States, France, Spain, the UK and Ireland in recent years. Ricardo has performed in the Edinburgh Festival for fourteen years running and toured to Montreal and Vancouver in 2005 2006, 2007. 2006 saw him performing on four continents, travelling most of the year. From Cambodia to Canada, Brighton to Bangkok, Montreal, Paris, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Washington, several Scottish dates and Cape Town, South Africa.

Ricardo played a residency in New Jersey in May 2006 at The State Theatre, New Brunswick and he expanded his links with the USA during this year, playing six shows in San Francisco in September and a series of private evenings in Washington in November, 2006.