Artist Profile: Lara Wong

Award winning musician, flautist and bansuri player Lara Wong is originally from Vancouver, B.C. and now resides in Madrid, Spain. She is the winner of the “Filón” first prize award for best flamenco instrumentalist of the Festival Cante de las Minas, making her the first foreigner to win in any category of the festival’s 62 year history, and the first female to win the instrumentalist category.

Lara’s musical journey began in the classical world and she earned her Bachelor’s of Music in classical and jazz flute at McGill University in Montréal. During her university years she began to dedicate herself to flamenco and in 2012 she decided to go to Seville to study flamenco flute and singing at the Fundación Cristina Heeren where she studied with flamenco legends such as Pedro Sierra, Maria José Pérez, and Calixto Sánchez.

Now, she is an up and coming flautist in Spain’s flamenco scene, playing alongside artists such as Tino di Geraldo, Bandolero Ruiz Motos, Tomasito, and Iván Vargas Heredia.

In Canada, Lara is a recipient of various grants from the Canada Arts Council for her dedication to the development of the “flamenco flute” and for being a pioneer of the flamenco jazz genre in Canada. Lara has played in festivals such as: Festival Arte Flamenco Mont-de-Marsan, Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, and Festival du Monde Arabe, to name a few. Lara tours with various ensembles such as “A Kali Canto,” “Fin de Fiesta,” and  “La Caramelita Flamenco Company” and has performed in France, Japan, Armenia, Canada, and Mexico.

_{YouTube Video – Lara Wong: Candaluza}

Lara Wong and Melón Jiménez

Lara Wong and flamenco guitarist, Melón Jiménez, make flamenco their universal musical language to traverse musical territories. Their music ebbs and flows with elegance and emotion, perfectly fusing the soul of flamenco with the harmonic brilliance of jazz and the rhythmic improvisations of Indian music. The groundbreaking couple first met on stage in 2018 in the flamenco jazz capital of Madrid, and ever since then, they have continued to grace audiences worldwide.

_{YouTube Video – Lara Wong: Rosa de los Vientos}