Rafael Riqueni was born in Seville , in the very flamenco district of Triana, in 1962.
At the age of fourteen, he carried off the National Guitar Awards at the contests organised in Córdoba and Jerez de la Frontera (1977).
He went on to accompany great figures of flamenco song and dance, such as Rocio Jurado, Isabel Pantoja, María Jiménez, Mario Maya and the familia Montoya.
In 1981, he again won the National Guitar Award in Jerez , this time his fellow competitors were former prizewinners.
He is one of the foremost flamenco guitarists of the present day, but he also devotes a great deal of time to composition. La Reina andaluza (1989), Mi tiempo (1990), first performed at the flamenco Biennial in Seville, Flamenco para Misa (1990) with Carmen Linares, Chano Lobato and Javier Barón, and Suite Sevilla (1993) with the classical guitarist José María Gallardo, are all examples of his musical creativity, wich is nourished by a great interest in the most diverse forms of music (classical and traditional music, songs and jazz). With the Orquesta Sinfónica de Córdoba conducted by Leo Brouwer, he gave the first perfomance of Concierto Gitano by Sabicas, who died before the work was premiered (1993).
Rafael Riqueni accompanies Carmen Linares in Carlos Saura´s film, Flamenco (1995).
Records:
JUEGO DE NIÑOS, (1986).
FLAMENCO, (1987)
MI TIEMPO, (1990).
SUITE SEVILLA. with José María Gallardo. (1993).
MAESTROS, (1994).
ALCÁZAR DE CRISTAL, (1996).
