Ada Lis Jimena and William Krause performance of "Gipsy Soul"

Gipsy Soul is the nickname given in endearing terms to Garcia Lorca. The Spanish Popular Songs program given at the Roanoke Main Library on Monday, September 14th, by the Emerging Artists Series, was performed in his honor. Local artists Ada Lis Jimena, mezzosoprano and William Krause, guitarist, performed thirteen such songs in a mezmerizing, elegant evening at the Library to a full house of spell-bound listeners.

Presented in the musical program was a short written description about Lorca, "Gipsy Soul," distributed to guests so that they too may be familiar with his legend and artistic spirit:

"Garcia Lorca is Spain's most deeply appreciated and highly revered poet and dramatist. His murder by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish Civil War brought sudden international fame. He must now be bracketed with Mocado as one of the two greatest poets Spain has produced this century, and he is certainly Spain's greatest dramatist since the Golden Age.
As poet his works reflected andalusian spirit. As a dramatist, he wrote romantic pieces with social implications and comedies.
However, music was one of the greatest passions of Lorca's life. In fact, he was a musician before he was a creative writer and had composed music before he wrote his first poems.
This program is about thirteen Spanish popular songs (Trece canciones populares espanolas) that Lorca collected during his trip to the Andalusia region in 1919."

Star City Fame filmed the evening's performance. Included here is one of the songs recorded live, entitled "Los mozos de Monleon."



What I found interesting was that I had seen familiar faces attending the Gipsy Soul performance who range in varying degrees of artistic tastes, and this illustrated to me the significance of Ada Lis' and William's presentation and talents. In the audience was a folk songwriter, a cultural dance performer, pop and rock music fans, opera fans, as well as Spanish music fans.

There is more information about Ada Lis and William on Emerging Artists' website, including additional videos. We look to bring a full interview of Ada Lis Jimena and William Krause in the near future, most hopefully as a video interview!!

About Emerging Artists Series:
River Laker (a/k/a Car Less Brit) is the man behind coordinating artistic performances at the Main Library. These events, the Emerging Artists Series, are some of the best and most interesting in Downtown. It focuses on local talent as well as artists imported from all over. Artists are of fine and performing arts of various mediums and genres.