We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Adam Del Monte. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Adam below.
Adam, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I often feel that my purpose discovered me long before I understood it. Born into an artistic family, my father being my first teacher, I grew up immersed in a bohemian, musical world. In Málaga, in the south of Spain, flamenco was the air I breathed. Later, living among the gypsies in Granada—in the caves of the Sacromonte—I became fully absorbed in the flamenco way of life.
By the age of eight, after years of unrelenting flamenco stimulus—the guitar, the singing, the dance, the endless celebrations that are themselves a form of instruction—I chose the guitar. That childhood decision has carried me through my entire life, and I’ve never once looked back. For that, I feel profoundly fortunate.
My evolution from performer to composer came at nineteen, though it unfolded naturally. From the beginning, I spent countless hours improvising, experimenting, and following the threads of sound wherever they wanted to lead me. Creating music felt less like a shift and more like the inevitable extension of everything that came before.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
The driving force of my musical life has always been a relentless expansion of my horizons—an ever-deepening pursuit of understanding, expression, and creative discovery. I was fortunate to receive a formal classical education while simultaneously living a bohemian, unorthodox upbringing across Spain, England, Israel, Germany, and Holland—sometimes more than once. All these influences converge in my music, forming a universal message that feels intrinsically woven into my creative identity.
As much as I revere the classical guitar and cherish its repertoire, I would feel incomplete confined solely to that world. This is where flamenco enters—fiery, visceral, and essential—adding the color and vitality that have always fueled my artistic voice. Throughout my life, I have moved fluidly between these two musical realms, nourishing my need for expression through their interplay.
In 1999, when I composed my first flamenco guitar concerto, which premiered in Jordan Hall with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), I discovered the extraordinary magic of translating flamenco into the language of the symphony orchestra. Conveying an art form so deeply idiomatic to the guitar—its rhythms, gestures, and raw immediacy—to such a different musical organism was a challenge that became its own exhilarating journey. Yet in doing so, I found an entirely new universe of ideas opening before me. A commission from the Santa Monica Symphony in 2012 for my second flamenco concerto pushed these boundaries even further and deepened my fascination with the fusion of flamenco and orchestral writing.
All of this ultimately prepared me for my next great endeavor: Between 2012- 2015 I composed my first opera. This work represents the first true flamenco opera—one that employs authentic flamenco forms and rhythms while honoring the rich language of classical orchestration. I also wrote the libretto for Llantos 1492, which tells the story of the Sephardic Jews during the dawn of the Spanish Inquisition, their connection with the Gitanos, and the shared hardships that shaped their destinies. It was first workshoped at the Tucson Desert Song Festival in January of 2019. Llantos 1492 premiered as a full production in February with Opera Southwest in Albuquerque to four sold-out performances.
I now look forward to collaborating with additional opera companies and sharing this work with audiences around the world.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The combination of passion, curiosity and discipline are the key ingredients of my work ethic. Digging deep into the voice of your desire for expression and being loyal to it, is fundamental to satying inspired.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
My ideal partners for bringing my music to the world stages are people who share and understand my vision of bringing worlds together. In an ever-expanding musical landscape where the blending of cultures is the order of the day, I am always open to people, artistic directors, managers, agents etc. who are able to see the benefit of uniting different audiences under the same cultural and physical roof in order to help expand people’s consciousness.
Contact Info:
- Website: adamdelmonte.com
- Instagram: adamdelmonte1
- Facebook: Adam del Monte
- Linkedin: Adam del Monte
- Youtube: Adam del Monte
- SoundCloud: Adam del Monte
Image Credits
1 & 2 photos by Aziza Murray – From the production of Llantos 1492, Albuequerque, NM.
3 by Hana Kofler – Adam at age 9, with father Dino to his left and flamenco dance legend, Mario Maya in Granada.
4,5,7 Charles Brooke – In Sao Paolo, Brazil.
6 Amparo Carmona – In Casa Patas, Madrid with his Maestro Pepe habichuela on his left and Pepe’s son Josemi to his right.
