ENRIQUE CORIA

“My passion for the guitar began when I was just six years old,” recalls Enrique Coria. “My father, Raymundo, placed a toy guitar in my hands and began teaching me to love it. I grew up listening to my grandfather, Jesús Elías, sing old waltzes and Argentine milongas, and yearning to draw sound from the strings of his guitar.” Given a guitar at age 10, Enrique studied the fundamental chords that he would practice for hours from a musician friend of his father’s in Dique Los Molinos, the small village in the center of Argentina where he grew up. His future in music was irrevocably decided.

Moving to the city of Cordoba at the age of 15 to pursue a career as a guitarist, Enrique immediately began performing contemporary Argentine folk music with different bands at clubs and festivals. He then moved to Buenos Aries to work with the popular group Los Rundunes and the Argentine singer Hernan Figueroa Reyes, who introduced Enrique to many great performers of the region, including classical guitar master Jorge Martinez Zarate.

During the past 40 years, Enrique has played on over 400 recordings with popular groups from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia and the United States. He joined the David Grisman Quintet in 1994 and is featured on the Acoustic Disc recordings Dawganova (ACD-17) and Dawgnation (ACD-49), as well as his two critically acclaimed solo recordings, Solos From South America (ACD-6) and Latin Touch (ACD-23).

“I first heard the David Grisman Quintet in Boulder, Colorado, when I opened for them playing Andean music with Sukay. Later on, I was playing music from Argentina and Brazil one day in David’s studio when David invited me to make my first solo CD. When I was invited shortly after that to join the Quintet, I couldn’t believe I was to occupy the position of guitarists such as Tony Rice, Mark O’Connor, John Carlini, Mike Marshall, John Sholle, and Rick Montgomery.”

Enrique’s latest recording is the elegant Intimo (ACD-50), a musical love story featuring his guitar work with the stunningly passionate vocals of his wife, Yolanda Aranda. Intimo presents authentic contemporary Latin American Canciónes on a level of high art­—the perfect marriage of voice and guitar. This unlikely pairing of a first generation Mexican American singer and a native Argentine guitarist  offers a beautiful glimpse into yet another amazing realm of acoustic music.
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YOLANDA ARANDA

A native of Northern California, Yolanda Aranda’s love for the music of her Mexican heritage began very early in her life. Accompanying her father, Ernesto, to his music lessons and performances in church or at Mexican festivals, she then studied with Solomón Guevara, a music teacher from Mexico City who also professed yoga, vegetarianism, and spirituality.

Yolanda’s home was filled with the many different kinds of music her parents loved: salsa, classical, Mexican rancheras, cumbias, American pop, and Nat King Cole—all played at full volume! Voice training began for Yolanda and her sister Pat in their car, during yearly road trips to visit relatives in Northern Mexico. Along the highways through deserts and small towns is where she learned her very first authentic Mexican ranchera, “Canción Mixteca.”

“Some of my fondest memories are of sitting with relatives around a small camp fire (sharing its warmth with goats and chickens). We would drink Mexican hot chocolate while the beautiful baritone voices of my father and my uncle Roberto filled the night sky.”

Since those early musical days, Yolanda has found her way along the path of many musical styles, from opera to folk and jazz. Yolanda rediscovered Mexican music and singing as a soloist in the Mexican corrido style with Coro Hispano, a well-known Latin American choral group in San Francisco under the direction of Juan Pedro Gaffney. That led to an invitation to sing with a mariachi at Francis Ford Coppola’s estate and performances with Latina Theatre Lab, Culture Clash, and Los Cenzontles.

Since meeting guitarist Enrique Coria, Yolanda has traveled with him to South America, and has had the privilege of learning authentic styles, intricate rhythms, and the interpretation of Latin American folk pieces. With the Acoustic Disc release of Intimo (ACD-50), Yolanda Aranda and Enrique Coria have created an authentic and intimate musical journey on a level of high art —the perfect marriage of voice and guitar.

“Thanks to Enrique’s skillful musical guidence, patience, and love, I am proud to sing all of these beautiful, heartfelt, and soulful songs. The memories and events of my musical childhood are profoundly etched in the person and performer I have become.”