Ricardo Miño
Who is Ricardo Miño?
Ricardo Miño Álvarez was born in 1949 in the Seville neighborhood of Triana, the historic cradle of flamenco. A non-Roma player immersed since childhood in the neighborhood’s musical atmosphere, he began studying guitar at ten with local teacher Esperanza González and went on to join the choir school of Seville Cathedral, directed by Ángel Ursalay, an early musical training unusual among flamenco guitarists of his generation.
Career
At just twelve he was already performing professionally, beginning tours with the company “Así canta Andalucía”, directed by Pepe Marchena and la Niña de la Puebla, with performances at Madrid’s Circo Price theater and, later, across Spain, France and Morocco. Throughout his career he accompanied some of the most important voices in flamenco singing, including Pastora Pavón “Niña de los Peines”, Pepe Pinto, Antonio Mairena, Trini España, Manuela Vargas, Enrique “El Cojo” and Fosforito, as well as sharing guitar duties on various occasions with Paco de Lucía and Pedrito Sevilla.
In 1971 he won the national guitar prize “Manolo de Huelva” in Córdoba, and in 1973 received recognition for best musical review at the Concurso Internacional de Guitarra de París, two milestones that cemented his standing as a concert performer beyond accompaniment.
Style and discography
His first recordings with musician Gualberto came in 1983, and over the course of his career he released four concert albums, some of them for the prestigious German label Claves, focused in his later years on an avant-garde and concert repertoire that moved him away from the traditional tablao and toward the concert hall.
Legacy
Married in 1977 to dancer Pepa Montes, with whom he had a son, pianist Pedro Ricardo Miño, Ricardo Miño closed his notable performing period at the XIII Bienal de Sevilla in 2004, leaving behind a career that united rigorous musical study with the direct experience of accompanying the great singers of his time.