2. Rodrigo y Gabriela

On the eve of the release of their album, 9 Dead Alive, the incomparable Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela performed at Upper Manhattan’s Hispanic Society of America for an episode of public television’s Live From the Artists Den. The two virtuoso musicians played a dazzling 12-song set in the century-old museum’s Bancaja Gallery, surrounded by the fourteen paintings that make up Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida’s masterwork “Vision of Spain,” a celebration of the country’s diverse customs. It was a breathtaking setting for Rodrigo y Gabriela’s unique fusion of musical genres, a mix of melodic beauty and percussive fury which drove the 300 invited guests into clapping, stomping glee.