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Anna Maria Ruimonte


The Ensemble “RUIMONTE”

The Ensemble “RUIMONTE”

“9 Centuries of Music in less than 2 hours...you’ve never heard anything like this before”

Mezzo Meets Bass, featuring Ana María Ruimonte and the jazz bassist and composer, Alan Lewine, plays a unique fusion of Jazz and Classical Music with a flamenco influence, supplemented by a percussionist and other guests.

Their broad repertoire highlights original arrangements of Operatic Arias, Spanish Songs of the medieval and baroque periods, Zarzuela, Latin American Popular songs and Sephardic Music, all filtered through Lewine’s jazz sensibility and featuring mostly Spanish language source material that gives listeners “8 Centuries of Music in about an Hour!”

In 2014, they performed on tour in Europe, including Spain, Belgium and Holland, and in 2015, Israel, Philadelphia and New York.

They appear in recital as a special collaboration sparked by the musicians’ continuing dedication to diffusing Spanish Vocal Music throughout Washington DC, the United States and the world. In 2014, Owlsong released the new CD Sampler. Renowned Spanish composer and critic, Tomás Marco, wrote that he consideres this classical-jazz and flamenco project of great importance.

Ana María Ruimonte, from Madrid, Spain, relocated for love to the Philadelphia area about two years ago. She has appeared throughout Europe, Israel and the U.S., including regularly with the National Orchestra and Chorus of Spain, and before that with Madrid’s Royal Opera at Teatro Real, performing with many of the world’s biggest stars (e.g., Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Dolora Zajick, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos). Ana Maria has appeared on several opera DVDs, on Spanish National Radio and Television and on CDs on Deutsche Grammophon and other labels. Domestically, she has performed in operas and recitals at Lincoln Center in New York, as well as in New Mexico, Colorado and throughout the northeast corridor in the US, and presented these two shows internationally in Spain, Belgium, Holland and Israel. Ana María and Alan recently appeared and performed together on the long-running TV program Puerto Rican Panorama on Philadelphia’s ABC6.

Alan Lewine “dropped out” to become a corporate lawyer after 18 years as a full-time jazz musician and composer primarily in the US west, though he has appeared elsewhere throughout the world as a leader and with such artists as Mose Allison, Clifford Jordan, Roy Hargrove, Sweets Edison, Herb Ellis, Anita O’Day and others. He still writes and performs.

Mezzo Meets Bass expects to release a CD next Spring before their featured appearance at the Organization of American States in Washington, DC.