On Feb. 9, Diego Amador kicked off the Chicago Flamenco Festival. Now in its tenth year, the festival highlights some of flamenco’s brightest rising stars. This month-long festival features a variety of events including workshops, which will bring together renowned Chicago musicians to explore the shift in flamenco music and its connection with Indian/Pakistani traditions as a result of the gypsies that traveled from India to Spain in the mid 1400s. Documentaries will also be shown throughout the festival, including “Flamenco School,” which gives the audience an inside look at what it takes to be a true flamenco artist. The festival will also feature special performances by several critically acclaimed artists.

This year’s opening night event at Instituto Cervantes included a performance by the Diego Amador Trio. His group includes Jose Julian Heredia (bass) and Israel Varela (drums). The trio kept the audience captured with passionate, raspy vocals and the instruments that complimented their performance. The Amador Trio featured songs like “Soleá del Churri,” instrumentals, while others, like “Comparito” are include a vocal with piano accompaniment.

Amador has no professional musical background. He learned how to play several instruments from his family, many of whom were guitarists. By age 11, he began performing with a band called Pata Negra and learned several other instruments, including the drums, and piano. Soon, he began collaborating with many artists including La Susi, Diego el Cigala, Chick Corea, Luis Salinas and Jerry Gonzalez among many others.

Amador states that one of the first things he heard in his home was flamenco but as he got older, he began to develop a deeper appreciation for other styles of music.

“My brothers started listening to Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington; this music captivated me,” he laughed as he recalled scratching his records on the ...