Cristina Pato

Cristina Pato (born August 17, 1980) is a bagpiper, pianist and composer.

Early life and education

Pato holds both a Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance and a Master of Music Degree in Music Theory and Chamber Music (with honours) from the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Digital Arts (Computer Music) from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

Career

Pato is Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University where she studied with a fellowship from Fundación Barrié de la Maza. She was awarded the Edna Mason Scholarship and the Irene Alm Memorial Prize for excellence in scholarly research and performance (Rutgers University, May 2008).

Work

The first female Galician bagpiper to record a solo album in Spain, she has released four albums as a solo bagpiper and two as a pianist.

Pato has collaborated with artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Silk Road Ensemble, Arturo O'Farrill, The Chieftains, Paquito D'Rivera, The World Orchestra, Damian Woetzel, Lil Buck, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Osvaldo Golijov and in more than twenty recordings as a guest artist. She has given more than 500 concerts in Spain, Portugal, USA, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, China, Korea, Angola, Arab Emirates and India many of them recorded and broadcast by television stations such as BBC, TVG and TVE and acclaimed by The New York Times, El País, La Voz de Galicia or The Scotsman.

Collaborations

In 2008, Pato appeared as a guest artist in Yo-Yo Ma "Songs of Joy and Peace" and on television shows such as The Colbert Report, PBS Live From Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center Honors.

She has been a member of Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. She is founder and artistic director of Galician Connection, a forum and multidisciplinary festival in world music celebrated at City of Culture of Galicia.

Discography

Solo

• Tolemia (1999)
• Xilento (2001)
• SOAS (2010)
• The Galician Connection (2010)
• Migrations (2013)

As guest

• Silk Road Ensemble Off the Map (2009)
• Yo Yo Ma Songs of Joy and Peace (2009). Won GRAMMY Award 2010
• Miles Davis Miles Español (2010) Bob Belden

References

• James R. Oestreich, September 16, 2006 "Revealing the Soul in Soldierly Bagpipes" The New York Times
• Allan Kozinn, August 21, 2007 "Latin Sounds of Many Parts, Even Bagpipes" The New York Times
• Cristina Huete, August 31, 2009 "La nueva Cristina" El Pais 2009
• Lara De Meo July 17, 2007 "The many shades of Mason Gross musician Cristina Pato" Rutgers Focus
• Vivien Schweitzer, September 19, 2006 "Lusty or Tranquil in Spirit, but Always Unlikely in Sound" The New York Times

External links

• Official website