‘Pasion Flamenco’ fills UU Church with music by acclaimed guitarist Boyd
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: March 19, 2008
“Pasion Flamenco” filled the Santa Paula Universalist Unitarian Church with music lovers for a performance by acclaimed Flamenco guitarist Robert Boyd.
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Times
“Pasion Flamenco” filled the Santa Paula Universalist Unitarian Church with music lovers for a performance by acclaimed Flamenco guitarist Robert Boyd. The latest offering from the Santa Paula Concert Series premiered the fifth year of musical offerings staged to benefit the renovation of the church’s famed stained glass windows.
“We’re really excited to have Robert Boyd here,” said Mariana Franco-Sommer, Santa Paula Concert Series music director, who founded the series with John Robles.
Boyd has studied in Spain and the United States, and his “passionate love of dance” infuses his music - from classic flamenco to his compositions. A lover of music and a musician since childhood, Boyd said he “discovered” flamenco while a high school student.
As a composer, “You really get lucky when the music just flows,” as it did in “For My Father,” written and recorded, said Boyd, in two days following the death of his father about four months before. Flamenco ranges from “burning hot to inspirational and floaty,” but Boyd said that most of his compositions are for dance: “My fiancée is a dancer... it kind of goes with the territory.”
A resident of Santa Barbara, Boyd, also known as ‘Berto’, is one of California’s premiere Flamenco guitarists/composers and one of the top composers of Flamenco in the nation. Born into a family of artists, which includes lead singer Brandon Boyd of the multi-platinum band Incubus, Robert Boyd has studied in the U.S. and Spain with Guillermo Rios (former guitarist for the infamous Flamenco company of Jose Greco) and Jesus Montoya (Madrid), among others. In the United States, Boyd has attended and participated in master classes with Manuel Barrueco and Gaspar Rodriguez, musical director for the National Ballet of Spain.
A sought-out performer for many concerts and festivals throughout California and the United States, Boyd’s final song for the Santa Paula Concert Series, his own composition, “In the Groove” was followed by a reception where he answered questions about his love of Flamenco.
The next performance in the series, scheduled for May, will be a solo piano concert. For further information on the upcoming concert, contact the church at 525-4647, Wednesday through Friday.
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