- Multi-talented Emilio Maya's visit to London
I had met Emilio while he was playing at Eshavira, on one of my visits to Granada. He is a friend of my good friend Kate of Anda La Musica, and she introduced us. Emilio used to live in London and he was keen to visit again. I knew the current guitar course finished in September, so I suggested he come in October and I put him in touch with Caroline who organises events for the London Peña.
I had organised courses for London-based teachers before, but never been involved in bringing someone over from Spain before. Fortunately I wasn't on my own - Caroline arranged the flights, accommodation at Ron Hitchens' house, and the other artists for the Peña performance. Meanwhile I concentrated on organising an intensive course for Emilio to teach.
In my enthusiasm to arrange the visit, I hadn't given myself much time to find a venue in central London - easy on a Sunday afternoon, but much harder on a Saturday. In the end I settled on the Central YMCA, which has lots of advantages: central, close to a tube, nice café and free internet access. Then I started on the publicity and organised a booking system.
Fortunately it wasn't hard to get people interested, and by the day of the course we had 12 people on the Intermediate Course and 9 on the Advanced Course, plus 7 observers - people like myself who were too nervous to join a workshop run by someone like Emilio!
We collected Emilio and Maya from Ron's house on Saturday morning and took them to the YMCA for some lunch while Dave and I set the room up.
Meeting the people who came to learn was the best bit - it's why I do this, to get new people involved and make opportunities for more advanced students.
I was glad not to be trying to join the workshop as well as organise it, but I needn't have worried. Emilio was very reassuring because as he said, we were all there to learn. He covered a lot of material in the two sessions, but my favourite part was when he taught some Seguiriyas and sang to show how the guitar accompaniment goes. Not only is he a fabulous guitarist, he can sing!
After the Saturday session we took Emilio and Maya back to Ron's house for a fantastic meal and to watch some of Ron's huge collection of flamenco DVDs. One was a Peña performance from some years ago when Emilio was performing with Jingle, Ana Calí and others, and in the fin de fiesta did an amazing dance! So he really is multi-talented.
The whole weekend was pretty non-stop, until the end of the second day of the course, when we made a mad dash to Bafta in Picadilly, the venue for that evening's Peña, so that Emilio could rehearse with the other artists. It was a busy weekend, but I learnt loads.
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