Rafael Riqueni

Rafael Riqueni, born in 1962 in the Triana district of Seville, is a flamenco guitarist whose style leans toward the classical. At fourteen he won the two main national guitar prizes, the Ramón Montoya Prize in the Córdoba competition and first prize in the Jerez national competition. His 1986 album Juego de Niños introduced harmonic and compositional ideas that began to define his style, followed by Flamenco (1987), Mi Tiempo (1990), the two-guitar Suite Sevilla (1993) with José María Gallardo del Rey, Maestros (1994), a tribute to Niño Ricardo, Sabicas and Esteban de Sanlúcar, and Alcázar de Cristal (1995 or 1996), with string arrangements.

Alcázar de Cristal was his last album for twenty-one years. His comeback came at the 2014 Sevilla Flamenco Bienal, where he won the festival's Giraldillo a la Maestría prize, and in 2015 he premiered Parque de María Luisa at the Teatro de la Maestranza, released by Universal Music in 2017. In January 2020 he premiered Herencia, a tribute to the history of flamenco guitar, at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Seville, and made his New York debut at the Flamenco Festival in March 2023.