Students of Spanish and José Mercé in the Correo de Bilbao

On January 7th we went with some of our Spanish students to the flamenco concert of the flamenco singer. It was very interesting for all of us, and supposedly quite an event in the city.

Because of this, the event was widely covered in the main newspaper of the city, El Correo Español. You can view the article at www.elcorreodigital.com or read it below.

In the photo you can see from left to right, Michael, Max, José – our director – and Kostas.

“The Arriaga dressed itself yesterday as a flamenco bar to receive the flamenco singer José Mercé, who presented to the Bilbao public his latest album, Ruido. The show which had been arranged for November, but had to be postponed due to the illness of one of the guitarists has now been presented on a few occasions, on which it has achieved considerable success. Mercé has managed to raise flamenco to levels of popularity like never before, thanks to his peculiar way of mixing this style of music with more popular themes. In fact, through the length of his career, he has sold more discs than the very similar Camarón. On the boards of the Bilbao theatre, he was accompanied by his ‘soul mate’, the guitarist Manuel Moreno, Moraíto, and, on second guitar, Dani de Morón. Percussion was run under the charge of El Güito, and in the chorus and clapping were Rafa, El Negro and Marce.

Minutes before eight it began to snow timidly over the capital of the Biscay region, as had been the fears of the staff present not long beforehand. Among those who decided to brave the cold to attend were José Llanos and Francisca Natoril, Norberto Alonso, Mari Carmen López, Rafael Martín, Antonio Monrocle, Esther Cerezo, Joaquín and Lea Hernández, Maite Azparren, Basilio Ovejero, José Manuel San Genaro, Ernesto Guzmán, Leticia Angulo, Germán Castillejo, Alberto Fidalgo and Nerea Sáenz, Victoria Mendía, Inés Ruiz, Pilar Puertas, Valeria García Landarte, Manuel and Teresa Pérez, Laura Zarate, Gloria Díaz, Raquel Guerra or Jesús Soltero. As well as the Athletic coach, Joaquín Caparros, admitted fan of the Jerez born singer, who arrived 15 minutes before the start of the concert accompanied by his wife, Rosa Amores.
Also not wishing to miss the action were the director of Cáritas Diocesanas de Bilbao, Mikel Ruiz, or the president of Orio Pan, Eduardo González who arrived accompanied by Mila Torres, Tina Martín, Susi García y Alfredo Rodríguez, from Nivel 3 Gyms. Also present were Vicenta Caballero, Gonzalo Camarero, César Urquijo y Sara Benito. Among those present there were even people coming from other regions, like Eugenio San Vicente, arriving from Santander especially to see Mercé, and even some from other countries, like Michael Colebroak and Max Lambertson from Scotland, or Kostas Papacharalampous from Greece who are visiting Bilbao and arrived at the concert accompanied by their guide, Chema Alonso.