Roger Scannura

Roots is the company that has built an empire on marketing the image of Canada’s great outdoors, in the form of stylish sportswear, homewares, and even a luxurious vacation lodge in British Columbia. Art director Roger Scannura is part of the creative team that has somehow brought beavers and log cabins into high urban style, even among people who have never even been to Canada. (Roots launched a Manhattan store in 1998.)

Mr. Scannura has a unique global perspective, having been educated in fine art, Gregorian chant, and Sicilian guitar music at the Franciscan monastery of St. Teresa. He is one of Canada’s most renowned flamenco guitarists and is considered a leader of the Nuevo flamenco guitarists and is considered a leader of the Nuevo flamenco movement, music that blends the traditional music with newfangled jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms. “Pure flamenco is very crude,” says the musical innovator. “There are probably only five people in the world who plays pure flamenco.” Mr. Scannura has recorded three CDs, Ritmo Flamenco, Saracen and most recently Medina.