Best Video Film & Cultural Center is proud to present a special program on Sunday, June 22, at 7 PM with Flamenco guitarist Léo Meléndez. Melendez will be joined in this program by international Flamenco guitarist Val Ramos and Flamenco dancer Yohanna Escamilla. The cover is $10 ($5 for students 18 and younger and $5 for senior citizens 60 and older).
The concert is the final performance of Ramos's advanced student/apprentice Léo Meléndez, who is a part of an Apprenticeship with the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program funded by the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. This will be a one-hour concert featuring various Flamenco guitar solos by Léo Meléndez, some guitar duo pieces by Melendez and me Val Ramos, and three Flamenco dance pieces with the two guitarists and Flamenco dancer Yohanna Escamilla.
Val Ramos is recognized internationally as one of the best Flamenco guitarists in the United States. After making his professional debut in 1985 on the show “Coming On!” produced by Linkletter Productions for the Disney Channel, Val went on to perform as a soloist, with his brother José Ramos, with his ensemble—The Val Ramos Flamenco Ensemble—and with numerous Flamenco
singers and dancers in the United States.
Ramos has performed at prestigious venues, including the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU, Yale University, Regattabar, The Iron Horse Performance Center, Nuyorican Poets Café, and the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain (as part of the Ensemble’s 2005 Spain Tour). He has performed at major music festivals in the U.S. Northeast, including the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Levitt Pavilion Summer Concerts, Summerwind Summer Concerts, Litchfield Jazz Festival, Regattabar Spring Jazz Festival, and Guitar Under the Stars Festival.
He has released three CDs of original Flamenco guitar compositions—Olive Green Eyes (1992), Boricuas Flamencos (1995, 1998 remix), and Por mi camino (2001, 2005 remix)—all under his independent record label, PIRAM Records.