Flute
Sunday
February 23, 2020
7:30 pm
WPAC Concert Hall
Lecture-Demo: Iberian Peninsula Meets World Music
Saturday
February 22, 2020
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
WPAC Instrumental Hall
Free Admission
Sunday
February 23, 2020
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
WPAC Recital Hall
Free Admission
2020 MIGF Festival Pass
is available to attend all festival events at a single reduced price:
Trained in classical music and improvisation, Arthur Dente is a French guitarist, composer and interpreter. He tours with his daughter flutist Valentine Dente as the Duo Alto Plano. In his compositions, he explores an interaction between the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and to some extent other cultures from the world through his Portuguese roots. Besides a prominent Latin inspiration, his musical compositions include other influences from Celtic nations, North America, South America, India, and Arabo-Andalusian.
After graduating from the Music Conservatory of Toulouse, he completed his education studying in masterclasses with Léo Brouwer, Manuel Barrueco and Abel Carlevaro in classical guitar, Pierre Culaz in Jazz guitar, as well as with Paco Serrano, Vincent Pradal and Manolo San Lucar in flamenco guitar. He further completed his education with a concertist course provided by Raphaël Andia.
In 2004, he founded the music orchestra Magellan, comprising 23 musicians: a chamber orchestra, a choir and a flamenco band with gypsy musicians. During the “Festival Off” held in Avignon in 2006, Magellan Ensemble presented a concert entitled “the Iberian Flagships,” a musical fresco covering three days of musical and dance performance.
In 1992, he concertized touring in Portugal with the Alliance Française. He later offered a recital program in his home town Aix-en-Provence, then Toulouse, Marseille and Paris. He also performed concerts and conferences in the United States, including Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. For these performances he put together several themes, blending Portugese Fado, Andalousian musical fragrances, and classical harmony, at the crossings between the popular and more sophisticated music.
The theme of India, central in his musical compositions, poetizes the tribal nature of the modern mankind at the crossing point of several civilizations. His CD, entitled “Las India” and published in August 2008, puts together this favorite theme around the “indigene”, amplified by an intensively poetic guitar.
In 2013 he composed a choral piece for the Aix-Marseille academy of education, entitled “Mundo Entero”, performed at Aix-en-Provence for a choir of 120 secondary school pupils and an ensemble of 15 flamenco dancers originated from several secondary schools of the larger Aix-en-Provence area.