Ismael PenaThe folklorist was born in Torreadrada (Segovia). He studied university (Law and Philosophy and Letters) and music in Madrid, and lived in Paris between 1960 and 1970. In that setting he met French singer-songwriters and gave his first recitals, based on popular Castilian themes and Spanish Renaissance songbooks.

He went on to record several albums and won the Grand Prix du Disque with his first album Songs of the People – Songs of the King, awarded to him by the Charles Cros Academy in Paris. During those years, he toured France, Algeria, Switzerland, Tunisia, Morocco, Belgium, and Greece, performing his shows of folk and early music with the Jeunesses Musicales de France. Back in Spain, he began recording albums of poets' works. In 1976, he participated in an anthology LP, Segovia Viva, with Maestro Marazuela and the Nuevo Mester de Juglaría.

In the 1960s, he began his work of recovering and disseminating popular culture. Today, he owns one of the largest collections of folk art in the country, for which he received the Agapito Marazuela National Folklore Prize.