Melón Jiménez & Lara Wong

Award-winning flutist and bansuri player Lara Wong, and flamenco guitarist Melón Jiménez, make flamenco their universal musical language to traverse musical territories. Their music ebbs and flows with elegance and emotive power, as they fuse the soul of flamenco with the inventive spirit of jazz and the rhythmic improvisations of Indian music.

Since coming together in Madrid in 2021, Lara and Melón have performed over 100 concerts across four continents, captivating audiences across Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. They have graced world-renowned stages including the National Arts Centre, Blue Note Shanghai, Suma Flamenca, Helsinki Flamenco Festival and SunFest. In October 2024, they released their debut album, which received critical acclaim and was nominated for a JUNO Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, one of Canada’s highest music honours.

Lara Wong, a Canadian flutist and bansuri player of Chinese and Japanese heritage, is a trailblazer in the flamenco world. After graduating from McGill University with a degree in classical and jazz performance, she immersed herself in the flamenco tradition in Andalusia. In 2021, she made history as the first woman and first foreigner to win the prestigious Filón Minero award for Best Flamenco Instrumentalist at the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas in Spain. Today, she is celebrated for her groundbreaking work integrating the Indian bansuri into flamenco music.

Jiménez’s flamenco roots run deep: he learned the guitar from his father, a Gitano (Spanish Roma) guitarist from Jerez de la Frontera, the birthplace of flamenco. His mother, a German classical pianist, brought another musical world into the home. These rich influences, combined with his boundless musical curiosity, led him to tour with renowned artists across genres, including Anoushka Shankar, Enrique Morente, Richard Bona, Niña Pastori and Jorge Pardo.

Come see this dynamic duo take the Hugh’s Room Stage Sunday February 22.