Barcelona Metropolitan Magazine Podcasts

This month we speak with Tarek Fresno, a Barcelona native, music aficionado, world traveler, and bartender at the historic Bar Marsella in the neighborhood of El Raval for seventeen years. Founded in 1820, Marsella is the oldest bar in the entire city; generations ago, it was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite hangout, and a hot spot for artists and intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Dalí, Gaudí, Picasso and many more were known to stop by for a drink or three. The bar’s signature cocktail — absinthe, the star drink of 19th-century Parisian bohemians — has remained the same despite the passing of the years.

Welcome back to the Metropolitan Culture Corner after our summer break! We start off the 2024 fall season with an interview with film producer and visual artist Mara Adina. Born in Transylvanian, Romania, she now splits her time between London and Barcelona. Together with her sister, director Ilinca Calugareanu, she started the film and documentary production company Vernon Films in 2012. Their film projects have been screened at major film festivals such as Sundance and the Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival, and on platforms like Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max, among others. Aside from her success in the world of cinema, Mara is also an accomplished abstract painter. Her work is characterized by intense colors, layered textures and broad brush strokes. Mara’s first solo exhibition was here in Barcelona this past spring, titled Feel with Abandon, and she has another in the works as we speak.

This month on the Metropolitan Culture Corner, we go behind the scenes with soprano and musicologist Dr. Patricia Caicedo, whose academic and creative work centers on Latin American and Iberian art song. She regularly gives lectures and master classes at music conferences and universities around the world, has released 11 albums, and has published multiple books as well as scholarly editions of scores. She is the founder of the Barcelona Festival of Song, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. Patricia is also the creator of Mundo Arts: a music publishing house, independent record label and online store which supports various projects in Spain, Latin America and the US. But her mission to get the word out about the music she’s passionate about doesn’t stop there: she hosts a podcast, Latin American and Iberian Art Song, in which she interviews composers, musicologists and other international experts, and she is the creator of EYECatalunya, an interdisciplinary platform dedicated to promoting Catalan artists internationally.

This month on the Metropolitan Culture Corner, we interview soul singer Clarence Bekker, known as one of the most dynamic and explosive front men in all of Spain. Over the years, he has been a part of a number of notable musical projects, from Swinging Soul Machine to Barcelona’s own 08001, to the international musical project and non-profit organization Playing for Change. This last one took him on the road all over the globe, and the project’s videos have racked up over 200 million views. But even before that, he had singles on the UK charts back in the 1990s; today, he’s known as the face of the Clarence Bekker Band, which has toured Brazil, Morocco, Japan, Italy, Spain, Australia, and beyond.

Our guest this month is singer, songwriter and guitarist Carlos Mendoza. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, he has been a Barcelona resident for several decades. He moved here with the other members of one of his bands, a rock group called Luz Verde. Since then, he has been nominated for a Latin Grammy for his work with them; they have released seven albums, and have legions of fans around the Spanish-speaking world, especially in Latin America. And for the past decade, Carlos has also been an integral part of rock and rumba band Alma de Boquerón, which started out as a fun bar band but has since grown to a six-piece powerhouse that regularly plays clubs and festivals. He’s equally at home on big stages as on small ones—or in an ER clinic, tending to a patient’s illness or injury. Yes, Grammy Nominee Carlos Mendoza is also a clinical immunologist, and is currently also getting a master’s degree in emergency medicine.