Craig Alden Dell, a world-renowned classical guitarist who now lives in Seabeck, has taught his style of playing to guitarists for decades, but he never knew how much influence he had until he recently met up with former student AnnaMaria Cardinalli.

He started hearing about the success of “AnnaMaria,” as she is professionally known. He learned she had gone on to become a professional guitarist and an operatic mezzo-soprano, and had played for the Prince of Spain, given a solo recital at the Kennedy Center and sung a cappella for Pope John Paul II.

When he finally got ahold of a recording of her music, he was stunned to hear how closely she followed his style. That wouldn’t have been surprising were it not for the fact that when Dell gave AnnaMaria lessons in the early 1980s, she was only 3 years old.

Dell recalls the curly-haired little girl bounding into his studio in Sante Fe in 1981, tugging on his pant leg and “politely demanding” that he teach her to play “just like him.”

Dell said he was amazed at her natural abilities for music and the guitar.

Hearing her 24 years later, he was still amazed.

“When I heard her music I knew it sounded familiar, then I realized it reminded me of me,” Dell said. “I was taken aback — it’s amazing the kind of influence we have on children when they are that young. I’ve taught a lot of guitar players who have gone professional, but AnnaMaria really carried the ball with the styles that I’m into.”

Those styles are classical and flamenco, known for their passion, fire and high degree of technical skill.

It’s understandable that AnnaMaria would have that passion and fire in her blood — she is an 18th generation Santa Fean, with Spanish family roots there going back to the 1600s.

Other than her year of instruction with Dell, she has been largely self-taught.

“Because I’m dyslexic I couldn’t find a teacher who would take me, so I learned on my own.”

Music was her passion, and she finished high school at age 13 to devote herself to a professional career as a guitarist. She also developed an interest in singing, but not just any singing. Her goal was to sing Carmen, the quintessential operatic role.

She added mezzo-soprano to her musical resume, and sang Carmen with the Santa Fe Opera and other venues.

While performing and recording through her teen years, she also graduated summa cum laude from St. Mary’s College in California at 18, and by 20 had completed her master’s degree at St. John’s College in Santa Fe. Last year, at 25, she had completed her doctoral dissertation at the University of Notre Dame, and was awarded a Ph.D in Theology with an emphasis on Latino Studies.

A music major would have seemed the natural choice for the gifted musician, but AnnaMaria felt that bringing “performance” into an academic setting stifles it. Instead she researched the early roots of today’s Spanish flamenco “as they are preserved in the liturgical tradition of the New Mexican Penitentes — a society whose worship presents a time capsule of medieval Spanish spirituality,” she said.

Dell and his protege joined forces this summer to perform as El Duo Duende, what Dell calls an ideal duet, able to play as one yet with each capable of expressing something uniquely complimentary to the other.

While Dell’s playing comes from discipline and long experience, AnnaMaria’s is colored with enthusiastic abandon; his is powerfully masculine, hers is warmly feminine.

AnnaMaria also sings while she plays, an unusual combination for the musical style.

Duende is a Spanish term which loosely means “A mysterious power that all may feel and no philosophy can explain.”

The Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca noted, “I have heard an old guitarist, a true virtuoso, remark, ‘The duende is not in the throat, the duende comes up from inside, up from the very soles of the feet.’”

Dell surprised concert-goers who came to hear him perform at the Roxy Theatre in Bremerton in September by bringing AnnaMaria on stage for the latter part of the program.

“It was a stunning success that was indicative of the few concert performances we have had together since our reunion,” Dell said.

Dell is living up to his promise to that audience of 400 to perform a full concert with AnnaMaria.

El Duo Duende presents a concert of classical and flamenco music at 3 p.m. Dec. 18 at the Bremerton High School Performing Arts Center, 1500 13th St., Bremerton.

Tickets are $20 adults, $10 students and children, available at the Amy Burnett Gallery and Kitsap Music in Bremerton, Ted Brown Music in Silverdale, Mill’s Music in Poulsbo and at the door.