Daniel Fries

Daniel Fries is one of the premier flamenco guitarists in the San Francisco Bay Area, both as an accompanist for flamenco song and dance, and as a soloist. He has performed with such world class flamenco artists as La Tania, Andrés Marín, Cristo Cortés, and Manuel Gutierrez, as well as with many local artists and companies, such as Caminos Flamencos, Carola Zertuche, Arte y Compás, and Carolina Lugo’s Brisas de España, for which he has been musical director. While in Italy, he performed with two of the country’s top dancers, Juana Cala, and Maria Jose Soto Leon in venues from Venice to Milan to Sicily. While his playing style remains grounded in the roots of the traditional Spanish flamenco, he also explores new directions in musical composition as well as blending of elements from the various musical traditions around which he grew up in San Francisco; Indian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African. He has performed in venues ranging from San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, to venues in China and in India. He also directed the music for “Zambra Bailar,” a company mixing flamenco with Middle Eastern music and belly dance. In 2002, he composed and directed the music for La Tania’s ongoing project, “The Passage of The Muse.” Mr. Fries has studied in Spain with several flamenco guitar masters, including Manolo Sanlucar, Paco Peña, and Jose Luis Rodriguez. He has also studied Indian Classical music under Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and Ghanain drumming with C.K. Ladezkpo, and has B.A. in Music from U.C. Berkeley.