Vigüela / Spain
Members of Vigüela present their work with passion, joy and enthusiasm, drawing on their own local culture, cultivating traditional styles and techniques. For thirty years, they have been working on traditional works from their region of Castilla-La Mancha, the southern part of the Iberian plateau, in the heart of Spain, the main landscape of the iconic Don Quixote de La Mancha, known from the legendary novel by Miguel de Cervantes.
Since 2014, Vigüela members have placed greater emphasis on performing traditional music, taking further steps in attempts to recover and restore the archaic local musical language. Juan Antonio Torres and his sister Carmen were lucky enough to be born and raised in a family of musicians. Their father was a professional drummer, and Juan Antonio continued this family custom and also started as a drummer. Under the influence of his love for traditional music, he learned to play guitar and other instruments. In 1986, at the age of 20, this love led him to found Vigüela with his sister Carmen, and several other friends from his village of El Carpio de Tajo, in the province of Toledo.
In April 2016, the famous British label ARC Music released their last album Temperamento. In recent years, the artists have performed in Spain, Norway, Hungary, Sweden and Germany, among others. In 2017, they performed in Switzerland, Cyprus, Poland and the United Kingdom (during the WOMAD festival).
Juan Antonio Torres – vocals, guitar, rebec, frame drum
Luis García Valera – vocals, guitar, lute, frame drum
Mari Nieto – vocals, frame drum
Carmen Torres – vocals, frame drum
The concert took place in 2018.