Cristina Pato at NYU’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center

Noted Galician bagpiper, musician, writer, producer and educator Cristina Pato organizes and hosts a series of free public events throughout the fall at NYU’s KJCC.

As the first musician to hold the Visiting Chair of Spanish Culture and Civilization at The King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, Cristina Pato hosts a series of lectures, discusions and a performance starting September 26. The Chair is offered for one semester each year to a scholar or public figure connected to Spain or the Iberian Peninsula, increasing awareness of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world at New York University and fostering cultural and intellectual exchange.

Internationally acclaimed Galician bagpiper master, classical pianist and passionate educator, Cristina Pato enjoys an active profesional career devoted to cultural exchange and to creating new paths for her unique instrument. Her dual careers have led to performances on major stages throughout the world, including regular tours in the U.S. and Europe and sporadic tours in India, Jerusalem, Angola, China, Korea, Mexico, Turkey, and her native Spain.

Transcending Disciplines: An Artist’s Journey to Cultural Sustainability

• On Thursday, September 26 at 6:30 p.m.
• A lecture and performance with Cristina Pato.

An Invisible Ancestry and the Unquiet Genes of the Brain

• On Thursday, October 17 at 6:30 p.m.
• A conversation with Cristina Pato and Kenneth S. Kosik, the Harriman Professor of Neuroscience Research and co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Afro Latin Perspectives in Jazz and Classical Music

• On Thursday, November 14 at 6:30 p.m.
• Cristina Pato hosts a conversation with Afa S. Dworkin (president and artistic director of Sphinx Organization) and Arturo O’Farrill (founder and artistic director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance).

Bilingual Societies and Sustainability: Spain’s other languages

• On Thursday, December 5, 2019.
• Cristina Pato hosts a round table featuring Francisco Castro (managing director of Editorial Galaxia, from Galicia), Rose Rey (editor-in-chief of Angle Editorial, from Catalunya), and Lorea Agirre (editor-in-chief of Jakin Magazine, from the Basque Country).

About Cristina Pato

Pato is the leader of the Cristina Pato Quartet (USA), the Cristina Pato Galician Trio (Europe) and an active producer and artistic director of multidiscipinary events, including her own festival, Galician Connection. She serves as Learning Advisor for Silkroad, founded by Yo-Yo Ma, and is an active touring artist and composer.

In 1999, Cristina Pato became the first female gaita player to release a solo album, and since then she has collaborated with world music, jazz, classical and experimental artists (including Chicago Symphony, Yo-Yo Ma, Arturo O’Farril, New York Philharmonic, Paquito D’Rivera and dancers Damian Woetzel and Lil’ Buck).

Pato has released and produced six solo gaita recordings and two as a pianist. She has collaborated on more than 40 recordings as a guest artist, including the Grammy Award winner Yo-Yo Ma and Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace and the jazz album Miles Español: New Sketches of Spain. She is also featured in the documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble, directed by academy award winner director Morgan Neville.

In 2012, Pato wrote My Lethe Story: The River of Forgetfulness, a storytelling-chamber music piece commissioned by Silkroad, which premiered at Harvard University. The piece combines her passion for neuroscience and the personal story of her mother’s memory loss. The piece engaged the combined power of art and science in academic institutions.

She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (NJ), where she was awarded the Edna Mason Scholarship and the Irene Alm Memorial Prize for excellence in scholarly research and performance. She also holds degrees in Piano Performance, Music Theory and Chamber Music from the Conservatorio de Musica del Liceu (Barcelona), and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Digital Arts (Computer Music) from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).

Pato was Mellon Visiting Artist in Residence for the 2014-2015 season at the College of Holy Cross. She has been a scholar-in-residence developing an interdisciplinary collaborative curriculum at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she taught Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration with Prof. Ken Kosik (Neuroscience), Prof. Kim Yasuda (Spatial Art) and Prof. Mary Hancock (Anthropology). She also served as Blodgett Distinguished Artist in Residence at Harvard University (Department of Music) in 2017. Dr. Pato’s records Latina (Sunnyside Records 2015) and Migrations (Sunnyside Records 2013) have been the basis of her explorations of cultural identity through the arts in U.S. academic settings.

In 2014 Pato’s groundbreaking Gaita and Orchestra Commissioning Project was awarded a grant from New Music USA to build a repertoire for gaita and symphony orchestra. Galician bagpipe concertos commissioned by Pato have been premiered with Sphinx Orchestra in Detroit, Chicago Sinfonietta in Chicago, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès in Barcelona and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

Cristina Pato is a member of the Artist Committee of the arts advocacy organization, Americans for the Arts. An active lecturer, writer, panelist and public speaker, she also writes a popular weekly column for Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia titled The Art of Restlessness.

In the Spring of 2020, Pato will teach an interdisciplinary music and culture course titled The Invisible Music of Northern Spain during her teaching residency at NYU.