Feriante's Flamenco stylings at Valentine's show

In neo-flamenco and classical guitarist Andre Feriante's world, Friday's 10th annual Valentine concert in Seattle isn't just for couples.

"I hear people say, 'I'd come but I don't have a date.' My thought is that there will be lots of friends and groups of people coming. It's not a typical couples' type of event," Feriante said.

"I've positioned the show around Valentine's Day just because the guitar is romantic and the music has a nostalgic romance feeling about it. Once you're in the theater, listening to the music, it transports you. Then you're really alone with your thoughts anyway."

The Best of Feriante concert features the first half with Feriante performing solo; the second half includes Feriante and guests violinist Swil Kanim, pianist Overton Berry, bassist Clipper Anderson, guitarist-vocalist Eric Fridich and guitarist Charlie Solbrig.

Each attendee will receive a free Feriante CD.

Feriante, born to an Eastern Washington mother and an Italian father in Italy, settled in Seattle in 1988.

His neo-flamenco approach is broader than traditional flamenco although his style draws from flamenco guitar techniques and rhythms. It uses lots of harmony and new classical music with flamenco and Brazilian elements and improvisation.

"Flamenco players for the past 30 years have been starting to branch out and incorporating jazz with flamenco. Recently Ottmar Leibert did a recording, 'Neuveau Flamenco.' After that there were 200 sound-alikes because he did so well," Feriante said.

Feriante believes there is a healing power in music.

"I don't know much about the scientific element of it but I do believe it has a little bit to do with the nonverbal, maybe even pre-language states.

"In my own journey with music earlier in my career, I was definitely the musician who ... prepared the piece and then delivered it almost like a gymnast does a routine.

"A few years back, I went through an artistic change, coming into an artistic spiritual place. Music became more of a dialogue and a conversation. In that sense I'm listening to my audience, in some strange way feeling the shared silence that's there, a sense of empathy going on. That's how I'm able to give something that's calming and somewhat caring."

Feriante's classical training included time with classical guitar icon Andres Segovia.

"His mission in life was to take the guitar to the concert stage. When he was a young person learning the guitar and trying to get concerts and elevate it to that same level, it wasn't accepted (but he persevered and) brought the guitar to the concert stage where it hadn't been before."

Feriante's most recent CD, the 15-song "Bohemian Boulevard," starts with the title song with an Eastern European, bohemian, gypsy feel.

"My idea was to write 10 songs in that vein. But I am not that much with formula. I prefer to put something down that comes to me in a natural state rather than attempting to compose in one direction.

"Art comes to me in a magical sense. I let myself be open for a few months to ideas (so) it's a much more varied journey," he said.

"And (the single) 'Elysian Fields' is my parallel to a Monet; it's Impressionism, very dreamy."

In the concert's first half, Feriante will perform solo in a short tribute to Segovia and talk a little about him before he shares the stage with each of the second half's performers.

"He was very outspoken. I'll bring out some of the interesting things he said paralleling the guitar to women ... and to the instrument of love."

On the back of the liner notes of his new CD is a poem by Feriante, "Women of Picasso."

"I traditionally included poems, starting with the second CD. I had one CD, "Serenade," with 12 songs and wrote a poem for each song.

"(This one) makes reference to silence and music and the sensuality that can happen with the Spanish sound of the guitar. There's a parallel there for the music and the poem.

"My poems are almost like dream. I can't claim responsibility for them," Feriante said.

But he can share.