Alberto Funes Arjona was born in Granada on February 2, 1982, into a humble family who sought opportunities in the city that their rural surroundings couldn't offer. He spent his childhood and adolescence in the La Chana neighborhood. He is the youngest of seven siblings, only one of whom is a musician. His father is from Salar, a town in western Granada province, and his mother is from Alhama de Granada.
From a very young age, he was drawn to music and began his violin studies at the age of eight at the Victoria Eugenia in Granada. It wasn't until his teens that he fell head over heels in love with flamenco and didn't hesitate to trade the classical music scene for the flamenco clubs of his hometown, although his first appearances in flamenco groups were as a violinist.
In 2004, he received a scholarship to study at the renowned Cristina Heeren Foundation of Flamenco Art in Seville. He studied with the sadly departed maestro from Arahal, Paco Taranto, as well as with María José Lama and Pepa Sánchez. This marked a turning point in his life as a flamenco singer, providing him with the necessary impetus and motivation.
In August 2006, he made his first international appearances as a flamenco singer. Portugal (CAE Figueira da Foz), with the Granada-based company of the Romero sisters; and Cuba, in collaboration with the Lo Ferro ballet, Murcia; performing at the Gran Teatro de La Habana.
Alberto Funes has trained with some of the greatest flamenco singers in addition to the aforementioned Paco Taranto. El Pele, Calixto Sánchez, Marina Heredia, and Antonio Gómez El Colorao have all contributed to shaping the Granada native as a flamenco singer.
Another important event in Alberto's artistic career occurred in 2008, when Blanca Li and Javier Limón noticed him to be part of the cast of actors and singers starring in the musical Anonymous Lovers , by Grupo Drive, performed at the Rialto theater on Gran Vía in Madrid during part of 2008 and 2009, with which they recorded the double CD Anonymous Lovers The Record.
In 2009, she toured Mexico with flamenco dancer Cynthia Cano and joined the Rafael Aguilar , performing in the ballets Carmen and Rango at the German opera houses of Hamburg (2009), Dresden (2011), Leipzig (2011), Mannheim (2011), and Frankfurt (2012). With the same company, she toured China (2010 and 2013) and Taiwan (2011).
In the summer of 2010 he collaborated with the Lo Ferro ballet on a tour of Chile and worked as a flamenco singer in the flamenco show of the Spanish pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China.
She worked at Suma Flamenca (2012) and Madrid en Danza (2011) with the show Cartas de amor, by Selene Muñoz.
In 2012, he graduated in Flamenco Singing from the Cristóbal de Morales in Seville, first in his class and the first in Andalusia to achieve this distinction. That same year, he joined the flamenco dance company Suite Española, with which he toured theaters around the world with various shows: Russia, Latvia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the United States, Romania, Finland, Turkey, France, and, of course, several theaters in Spain.
Invited in 2012 by the Spanish Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, for a performance and workshops on flamenco.
In 2014, she began her journey with Sara Cano's dance company, working alongside Héctor González on the music for the piece A palo seco , which was awarded at the 23rd Spanish Dance and Flamenco Choreography Competition in Madrid, and taking it to stages such as the Lido Theatre in Ostia, Italy (2016), the VI Flamenco Biennale in the Netherlands (2017), the I Flamenco Biennial in Slovenia and the Flamenco Festival in Dusseldorf (2018), the Spanish Pavilion at the Dubai Expo in the United Arab Emirates (2022), the CCE in Guatemala (2022), and the Attakkalari Festival in Bangalore, India (2023), among others. She also produced the music for the show Mujer de pie with the Sara Cano dance company, alongside Russian producer Alexey Starodubtsev. The show premiered at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 2021. Mujer de pie has also been performed at the 26th Jerez Flamenco Festival (2022), the Albuquerque Flamenco Festival, NM (2022), the Milan Flamenco Festival (2022), and Milan Fashion Week (2023).
In 2016, a new project began with the Moroccan singer Hamid Ajbar, recreating flamenco sounds and Andalusian music and taking it to festivals in Monastir, Tunisia (2016); Brendola, Italy (2018); Mérida, Mexico (2019); Casablanca, Morocco (2019); London, Nottingham and Leeds, England (2019); the X Islamic Festival of Mértola, Portugal (2023); as well as places of national interest such as the Three Cultures Foundation, Seville (2018); Medina Azahara, Córdoba (2022); and Murcia Tres Culturas (2022).
In 2018, she recorded vocals with musician and singer Nacho Cano for the musical Malinche, currently being performed in Madrid, and for the demo of the film Rango, under the direction of Hans Zimmer.
During 2019 and 2020, she was part of the cast of the dance company Flamencos en route. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Baden, Switzerland.
In April 2023, she premiered a dance piece by Eva Manzano, as well as the production of its soundscape: Picasso's Monsters .
