Flamenco Historian Brook Zern is Knighted by Spain's King Juan Carlos I

Spain’s King Juan Carlos has named North American Brook Zern, writer, speaker and investigator of flamenco-related topics, to receive the Cruz de Oficial de La Orden de Isabel la Católica, which constitutes knighthood.  The award recognizes his “outstanding contributions to the dissemination of Spanish culture in the U.S.” He will receive the decoration from Ambassador Jorge Dezcallar next month at an official ceremony in Washington, D.C.

For more than 40 years, Brook Zern has been learning about flamenco and Spanish culture, while helping Americans to better understand the art and the country.  He is the director of the Flamenco Center USA, which provides resource materials and guidance to scholars and aficionados.  He frequently lectures at U.S. universities, music festivals and cultural events, and discusses flamenco on radio and television programs. 

He has written extensively on the subject for numerous publications in the U.S. and in Spain, and received Spain's Premio Melia de Periodismo for his New York Times articles on the music and its cultural context.  He is the Flamenco Editor of Guitar Review magazine, and his writing on parallels between the blues and cante jondo has been widely cited. 

In 1972, Zern taught a course, «Flamenco: el Arte y la Vida» at the New School University in New York.  He established the Flamenco Collection at Columbia University in 1976, accepting important flamenco documents donated in person by Su Majestad la Reina, Dona Sofia.  In 1987, after a 15-year effort, he helped to assure the preservation of the monumental Spanish Television series «Rito y Geografia del Cante,» funding the purchase of the first copy for Columbia. Recently, he has been teaching graduate classes on flamenco at the City University of New York.

Brook Zern grew up to the sound of the flamenco guitar, which his father began studying in 1944 in New York. In 1965, upon graduation from Columbia University in New York and after studying the music of Sabicas and Mario Escudero in New York, he moved to Seville to learn about all aspects of flamenco.  There he was privileged to know legendary artists including the singers El Chocolate, La Fernanda de Utrera, Manolito de la María, Juan Talega and Manuel Agujetas as well as guitarists Niño Ricardo and Diego del Gastor and the incomparable dancer El Farruco. 

Zern currently divides his time between New York and Jerez de la Frontera while working with the travel industry to increase cultural tourism from the U.S. to Spain.