Francisca Wentworth: flute, alto flute, quena, zampoña, guitar and vocals. She began playing flute at the age of 13 guided by her grandmother, world renowned harpsichordist, Alice Ehlers. She later studied with Roger Stevens in Los Angeles and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. While living in London, she attended a week-long master class with flute great, James Galway. While living and traveling in Europe, Francisca performed in Austria and London with various guitarists and in Spain with the Pepe Million Trio.
Upon returning to the United States, she co-formed a women’s trio, Mariposa, and was part of the duo, Canta Tierra with Denis Schmidt. She toured the US, Canada and South America with SF Bay Area based Chilean band, Grupo Raiz, with whom she appeared at the New Song Festival in Quito, Ecuador. While there, she also performed with Chilean singer, Capri Hidalgo. In Lima, Peru, she performed with Nayo Ulloa and Mariposa and the Peruvian rock band, El Polen.
Francisca recorded and toured with Los Angeles based Nueva Canción band, Sabiá, appearing on the album, ‘Portavoz’ which featured an original Canta Tierra composition, ‘Por el Camino de la Niebla’. She has shared the stage with Inti-Illimani, Pete Seeger, Holly Near and Bonnie Raitt. She has also performed as primary flutist with the Aurora Mandolin Orchestra, and with classical guitarist, Tom Romero playing a mixture of Spanish, European, and Brazilian music including choro music.
In 2018, she reunited with Denis Schmidt from Canta Tierra and has since composed pieces for flute and guitar as well as some new songs. In 2022, Rich Rava joined the group to form what is now Tres Leches.
Tom Romero is a music teacher at Kehillah’s Jewish High School in Palo Alto, California. Tom is an active musician who has been teaching guitar in the wider San Francisco Bay Area for over 15 years. He has a B.A. in music from California State University, Long Beach, where he studied classical guitar with Kurt Schuster. Tom received his teaching credential and Masters of Arts Degree in Music Teaching from Notre Dame University in Belmont, CA where he studied classical guitar with Richard Patterson. Tom has composed original music for short films and documentaries, and he currently performs with the Aurora Mandolin Orchestra/Ensemble.
Rich Rava has been playing music in various forums for over 50 years. He began playing guitar at the age of 12, learning from several New York studio musicians through high school. Upon entering college on the east coast where he grew up, he hooked up with several different performing groups playing guitar in oldies, jazz, and rock bands at bars in the evenings during the week, and playing keyboards with wedding bands on weekends. He continued these activities through college and graduate school. After about a ten-year hiatus, Rich began playing again with different rock bands and began learning other instruments such as mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and fiddle. For the last 15 years, he has played guitar and mandolin with the Aurora Mandolin Orchestra, and a variety of musical genres with other groups.