That depends on what you mean by "old school flamenco player".
Flamenco is a Spanish style and he's Brazilian so, by default, he wouldn't come from that sort of background. I Googled him a day or 3 ago and found this, if you're interested...
Fernando Miyata was born in Brazil. He started to play viola and guitar at the age of 12, back in 1990. He was influenced by rock music by bands like Kiss and Guns n' Roses.
His interest in music carried him onto music school studying viola and starting to learn guitar. Fernando started playing in a cover band at the same time playing songs by bands like the Ramones, Guns n' Roses, Black Sabbath, amongst others.
During his studies it became clear that Fernando would be a talent and he was advised by his teacher to look for lessons in São Paulo with the instructor Sherlock Gomes with whom he studied for 3 years. He continued to study classical viola as well as guitar.
In 1994, Fernando started to study guitar with Mozart Mello in the Conservatory Souza Lima, with whom he studied for a year. In 1996, he started to study classical viola in ULM. In ULM, he participated in an a violin orchestra. Eventually he changed from Viola to guitar, studying with Marcelo Munari and professor Pollaco improving his improvisation skills.
Fernando started playing piano and drums in 2000 and devoting time to develop his own guitar style. Fernando is now a teacher himself and has taught more than 500 pupils.
