Ricardo Fernández del Moral

Ricardo picked up his first guitar at the age of 8 in his hometown of Daimiel, and six years later he began playing in flamenco clubs in the area, soon becoming their official guitarist. He soon began to discover that he enjoyed singing even more than playing the guitar, so spurred on by friends and relatives, he began exploring his facet as a singer.

When he performed at the La Unión International Festival del Cante de las Minas in 2012, he walked away with the five first prizes: Malagueña, Taranta, Soleá, Toná and Minera, including the Miner’s Lamp award, which served as a springboard and brought him to the attention of the general public. This led to a whirlwind tour of Spain, including performances at the Royal Flamenco Series at the Teatro Real (Opera House), the Jerez Festival, Madrid’s Suma Flamenca Festival and the Barcelona Jazz Festival, sharing the bill with leading exponents of flamenco, as well as in Japan and some of Europe’s main capitals such as Brussels, Luxembourg, Budapest, Cologne, Zurich, Fribourg, etc.

In May 2014 he released his first album entitled I Alone (Yo Solo), to great public and critical acclaim.

His early fascination with all the different flamenco styles (palos) when he started out as a guitarist accompanying flamenco singing turned into a true passion that led him to research the origins, provenance, variants and historical performers of the different flamenco palos. He complemented his study of flamenco by taking a simultaneous course in Musicology.

He has given several illustrated conferences on the art of flamenco, as well as master classes in flamenco singing and guitar.