Guitarra Flamenco at the Street Theatre with Paco Lara and Damian Wright

What's better that one flamenco guitarist? Two flamenco guitarists and a percussionist. That seems to be the thought behind Guitarra Flamenca, a cross-cultural musical collaboration that brings together Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco Lara, Australian flamenco guitarist Damian Wright from the group Bandaluzia, and drummer James Hauptmann, who's toured and recorded with Bluejuice. They're playing in Canberra as part of an Australian tour.

Wright says, "It's first and foremost a celebration of flamenco guitar."

The two men are celebrating the idiosyncrasies and beauties of the musical genre, foregrounding the guitars instead of relegating them to being the base of an ensemble - there won't be any dancers or instruments besides the percussion and any vocals will be provided by Lara.

In addition to playing traditional flamenco pieces they will also be performing what Wright calls "flamencoised" versions of other works.

"We're arranging the Adagio from Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez - it's arranged in a more flamenco way that's quite exciting."

Another work that will be "flamencoised" is Stanley Myers' Cavatina, a 1970 piece used in the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter.

Although Myers was a British composer, Wright says he and Lara thought they could hear a Spanish influence in it and decided it would make a suitable subject for their treatment. They'll also be playing music by jazz musician Chick Corea and classical guitarist Jorge Cardoso, among others.

Wright, 38, was born in Newcastle and began playing guitar when he was six.

"My aunty bought me my first guitar," he says.

"By my late teens I was a guitar lover in so many different styles - classical guitar, jazz guitar, rock, punk."

His father had a broad taste in music and introduced him to world music and when he heard flamenco he says it was "a coming together of all the things I loved about guitar - the rhythmic emblems of folkloric music, the intricacy of classical".

He was also attracted to its communal style of performance and the collaborative nature of its music-making and not long after after he finished high school went to Spain for three and a half years to study flamenco guitar. He's been back a few times since to increase and deepen his knowledge.

"The more I feel I learn about it, the more I don't know."

Wright - who also composes - played as a solo artist at The Rajasthan International Folk Festival in India in 2014 and in 2016 performed at The Shanghai Fringe Festival in China. His flamenco ensemble BANDALUZIA were invited to perform at the biannual Adelaide International Guitar Festival curated by Slava Grigoryan and performed to a sold out Sydney Opera House Concert Hall as part of TEDX Sydney 2014, Bandaluzia has also performed in Canberra at the National Folk Festival and the Street Theatre.