Bansuri player Lara Wong and flamenco guitarist Melón Jiménez cultivate otherworldly sounds at the Kay Meek, March 19 to 21
Tracks off the pair’s Juno-nominated 2024 album Confluencias trace the music traditions of Spain and India
Lara Wong (left) and Melón Jiménez
The Kay Meek Arts Centre presents Lara Wong and Melón Jiménez from March 19 to 21 at 7:30 pm
LARA WONG AND Melón Jiménez’s 2024 album Confluencias is a true marriage of their musical backgrounds. Vancouver-born bansuri player Wong opens the record with prolonged, otherworldly notes, drawing from her classical and jazz flute training to create a resonant, suspenseful sound. And when Madrid flamenco guitarist Jiménez joins in toward the end of that first track, his strings meet Wong’s notes with a warm intensity, amping up the urgency of the song in a way that carries through the rest of the album.
Confluencias’s mastery was recognized soon after its release with a Juno Award nomination for instrumental album of the year. It draws on traditional Spanish and Indian sounds, with Wong and Jiménez combining their instruments for an altogether unique listen.
The Madrid-based pair are now bringing their tracks to Wong’s hometown for a series of concerts at the Kay Meek Arts Centre, from March 19 to 21. They’ll be joined during the Confluencias-centred performances by Cuban-born Toronto percussionist Chendy Leon.
Wong, who is of Chinese and Japanese Canadian ancestry, and Jiménez, who has German and Andalusian roots, first met onstage in Madrid in 2018. Wong is now based in the city, and in 2021, she became the first non-Spaniard to win the Filón prize for best flamenco instrumentalist in the six-decade-plus history of its presenting body, Festival Cante de las Minas.
The upcoming concerts are part of the Kay Meek’s Cabaret Series; audience members can grab a drink at the bar and then settle down at a lamplit table in the McEwen Theatre for an intimate show. 
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