El Duo Duende

Artist Information

Biography

El Duo Duende was only a three-week-old performing team when they appeared at the renowned Healdsburg Guitar Festival in Sonoma County, California, in late August 2005, yet they met with a level of success and audience response that could not have been anticipated. Perhaps it was the history of their association that lent their playing a unique symbiosis as a duet and captured the audience's musical imagination.

Craig Alden Dell is among the world's most elite classical guitarists, having studied extensively with Emilio Pujol and Hector Garcia, and later with Christopher Parkening. In 1968, Craig also received career guidance from Maestro Andres Segovia. In addition to winning numerous major competitions as a classical guitarist, he possessed a combined talent as a rarely gifted flamenco player who was a close student of El Sarasate, and Sabicas, the “King of Flamenco Guitar.” He was also, from extensive traveling in the seventies and early eighties, a fiercely toughened young player who opted for the "alternative" appearance.

In 1981, after attending one of Craig's concerts in Santa Fe, NM, a three-year-old, curly-mopped AnnaMaría Cardinalli bounded through the door of his studio, tugged on his leather pant leg, and politely demanded that he teach her to play "just like him!" Craig was quite amazed at her natural abilities for music and the guitar, especially at three years of age. The unlikely pair became immediate friends and spent a wonderful but short time in which Craig both taught AnnaMaría and inspired her with all the beauty of which the guitar is capable.

As fate would have it, a player of Craig's caliber could not be held to a teaching studio for long, and the road soon called him back. In fifteen or twenty years, still performing in concert venues, Craig began to hear AnnaMaría's name again, this time as a fully professional guitarist and operatic mezzo-soprano, having such successes as performing for the Spanish Royal Family, giving a solo recital at the Kennedy Center, singing a cappella for Pope John Paul II, and touring in performance of the Concierto de Aranjuez. These major accomplishments piqued Craig's interest and after a series of missed connections, Craig was finally able to contact AnnaMaría again. Both were in for a revelation.

When they traded recordings, they discovered an amazing phenomenon. Because AnnaMaría had never had a serious, long-term teacher after Craig, and because it was Craig's playing that had once had such an impact on her, AnnaMaría did in fact play "just like him!," as her three-year-old self had dreamed. There were just a few differences. While both players shared an expressionistic sense, Craig's playing spoke of disciplined and broad experience while AnnaMaría's playing spoke of enthusiastic abandon, and, Craig's playing was as powerfully masculine as AnnaMaría's playing was warmly feminine.

"El Duo Duende" was born as the two realized that this constituted the makings of an ideal duet--two guitarists able to play as one, yet each expressing something uniquely complimentary to the other. The Duo takes the work of Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya as an inspiration and performs some of their repertoire, but as both Craig and AnnaMaría also share a background in flamenco, and Craig is an accomplished lutenist as AnnaMaría is an accomplished vocalist, they stretch the boundaries of a classical guitar duet. They seek out and work to incorporate any repertoire that may invite the "Duende," the flamenco spirit of healing which rises out of emotional suffering, to visit them in performance.

Following what has become a Duo tradition of innovation, Craig and AnnaMaria again shocked and inspired the guitar world at the highly prestigious Newport Guitar Festival 2006. Invited to appear in endorsement of Ed Claxton's acoustic guitars, the duo introduced a no-holds-barred, do-not-try-this-at-home performance of true Andalusian gypsy flamenco executed on steel strings. El Duo Duende alone performs with the passion and discipline required to endure such guitaristic brutality to achieve the purity of tone that "Flamenco Steel" allows.

For further information on the Duo, please visit their individual websites at www.craigaldendell.com and www.annamaria.ws, where you can hear sound samples and view bios.

Event Presenters:
For large venue bookings, house concerts, and festivals, please call Musica Mundial Productions directly at 1-877-983-6237.

University Circuit:
For concert presentations, including master classes and workshops, call either MMP or Wally Saukerson at 1-800-476-0442.

Instrumentation

Craig Alden Dell - Classical, Flamenco, and "Flamenco Steel" acoustic guitar, lute

AnnaMaria Cardinalli - Classical, Flamenco, and "Flamenco Steel" acoustic guitar, vocals

Discography

Craig Alden Dell - Spirits of the Latin Guitar, Treasures of the Spanish Guitar

AnnaMaria Cardinalli - Santa Fe Silver, Spain Never Sleeps, Quinceanera, El Rosario, Navidad

El Duo Duende - Guitars of Newport DVD, El Duo Duende CD, and Flamenco Steel CD to be released soon! Follow www.elduoduende.com for details.

Audio

• Bulerias Acero
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• Sevillana Giovanna
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• Oriental
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• Romanza Anonimo
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• Rumba de Santa Fe
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Lyrics

• Romanza Anonimo

Video

El Duo Duende Feature

Photo Gallery

Press

• Acoustic Player Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  The Duo consists of world-class guitarists Craig Alden Dell and AnnaMaria Cardinalli. Individually, ...The Duo consists of world-class guitarists Craig Alden Dell and AnnaMaria Cardinalli. Individually, these players can boast of global acclaim, but together, they rock the house in spades… their artistry and prowess with both the guitars and music were indeed something to behold. The audience sat in a hush until the final strains of each piece decayed to silence before erupting in thunderous applause.

• Sabicas, the King of Flamenco Guitar [+ Show ]
  

  "Gregorio, creo que tienes madera, y un gran porvenir" Translated . . . Craig, "I think you have..."Gregorio, creo que tienes madera, y un gran porvenir"
  Translated . . .
  Craig, "I think you have a magical strength and much greatness to come"

• Acoustic Player Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  AnnaMaria is an astounding musician. Period. Her forte is classical guitar with a poignant and gente...AnnaMaria is an astounding musician. Period. Her forte is classical guitar with a poignant and genteel vengeance. She also is a tremendous flamenco artist who has studied under the tutelage of Craig Dell. In fact, these two world-class musicians have teamed up to form El Duo Duende… But besides AnnaMaria's uncanny playing ability, she is also blessed with a phenomenal operatic mezzo-soprano voice. When she sings and plays, the world shifts into another dimension of awe-inspiring beauty.

• Emilio Pujol, Legendary Master of the Classical Guitar [+ Show ]
  

  "A Gregorio, mi querido discipulo, tu le tocaras al mundo con tu guitarra..." Translated... "To C..."A Gregorio, mi querido discipulo, tu le tocaras al mundo con tu guitarra..."
  Translated...
  "To Craig, my dear student, you will play for the world with your guitar..."

• Sor Juana Festival, Chicago
  

  “With a prodigious spirit that rivals Sor Juana’s, AnnaMaría marvels audiences…”

• The London Times
  

  "shows the many varied facets of the guitar as a concert instrument... "

• The Santa Fe New Mexican [+ Show ]
  

  “…exuding romance and passion…when La Cantadora [AnnaMaría] sings, she has a deep, confident… warm, ...“…exuding romance and passion…when La Cantadora [AnnaMaría] sings, she has a deep, confident… warm, burgundy mezzo. Her lips… shape the sounds as only the voice pouring from a throat blessed by Roman cardinals could.”

• The Albuquerque Journal
  

  "Consistent accentuaion of tone... Confidence and command of his instrument..."

• The Archbishop of Toledo, Spain [+ Show ]
  

  “I have witnessed the masters perform where AnnaMaría just has. And never have I heard a performance...“I have witnessed the masters perform where AnnaMaría just has. And never have I heard a performance more flawless or more moving.”

• Tico Times - San Jose, Costa Rica [+ Show ]
  

  "...as performed by a seasoned and sensitive artist with uncompromising taste and warmth of expres..."...as performed by a seasoned and sensitive artist with
  uncompromising taste and warmth of expression in musical rendition."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Setlist

Pieces El Duo Duende particularly loves include:

Koyunbaba - a Turkish-inspired fantasy journey that ends in incomparable virtuosity and the seamlessness that defines the duo's identity

Recuerdos de la Alhambra - perhaps the most evocative piece in the repertoire, made richer by the duo's harmonies

Oriental - Craig Alden Dell's singularly beautiful arrangement of the Granados masterpiece for two guitars

Rosa Mystica - from sinuous to frenzied, AnnaMaria's belly-dance-inspired round for the duo

Aranjuez - The theme from the duo's favorite concerto - this is the tragic cry that sounds across Spanish culture

Bulerias - both stirring and hypnotic, the bulerias is often thought to capture the essence of Flamenco

To listen to samples, please visit www.elduoduende.com

Basic Requirements

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