What a night we had!
Things started with an incredible Spanish dinner in the Kodosky Lounge prepared by Chef Maria Candil while, at the same time, we had a flamenco party on the terrace with tapas by Chef Candil and music and dance led by Pilar Andújar. Here’s a beautiful picture of her ensemble. All photographs taken by Arlen Nydam.
And here’s Pilar!
The dinner was beautiful. You can just glimpse the red and yellow Spanish décor, prepared by ACGS’ Event Manager Julie Stoakley, in this great photo of Joan and Thom Kobayashi. Joan serves on the ACGS Board of Directors, and is our chair of development.
I love this picture of Marvin Womack (left) and John Henry McDonald – what great energy and excitement we had in the dinner Thursday, and you can see it here. John Henry is the founder of Austin Asset, a lead sponsor of FlamencoAustin.
And here I am with my wife Glenda, her Uncle Binh Nguyen, and our friends Mike and Linda Light.
We started things off with an ensemble of 26 students from McCallum, Akins and Crockett High School under the direction of Jeremy Osborne – our Assistant Director of Education. They played Telemann, and it was a simply stunning performance. Bravo!
Carlos Piñana and his troupe were incredible! Here you see Piñana with his percussionist Miguel Angel Orengo. Fun fact: late on Thursday night/Friday morning the troupe and I ended up listening to jazz at the Elephant Room and Miguel walked right up to the drummer of the quintet and asked if he could sit in. They let him join, and the performance that followed was incredible – just like they had all been playing together for years!
And here is Estefanía Brao. What a dancer – and what costumes!
And here, finally, is a gorgeous shot of the whole troupe (guitarist Francisco Tornero, far left). What a show they gave us! Thanks to all who came, to the performers – both kids and pros – and again, to Arlen Nydam for his amazing photographs.
