Category Archives: News

“Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration” and Fall US Tour

Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration
Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration
Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration
Carolina Performing Arts Concert
Princeton University Concert
Clark State Performing Arts Concert

From August 7 to September 15 Cristina is immersed in the pilot course she co-created named “Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration” with professors Ken Kosik (Neuroscience) and Kim Yasuda (Arts), at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This course introduces students to the cross-disciplinary field of memory studies and demonstrate how different disciplines approach common questions. Its approach is motivated by Cristina and the musical composition and story that her mother’s dementia inspired, the seminal My Lethe Story, and the power of interdisciplinary education through the arts. This course is possible thanks to the generosity of Jody and John Arnhold.

And if your are in the US, here are the dates for her upcoming US Fall Tour:

The Art of Restlessness: New Column by Cristina Pato for La Voz de Galicia

After almost two years writing the column enlazARTE for El Correo Gallego, Cristina opened in July a new chapter in her press contributions with a new column for La Voz de Galicia, the third most important Spanish newspaper.

The weekly column, titled The Art of Restlessness, appears every Friday on the back page of the newspaper and online here →.

In other news, if you want to read Cristina’s praised Castelao Medals acceptance speech, it’s available here (pdf, Galician) →.

Lastly, Cristina and Wöyza were the protagonists of one of the magical moments of the 25 de Xullo Special Gala on Galician TV channel TVG, with their rendition of Natural Woman. Here’s the video:

Cristina Pato and Wöyza blend World Music and Hip Hop at “Os Xoves de Códax”

Cristina Pato & Wöyza - Os Xoves de Códax 2017
Cristina Pato & Wöyza - Os Xoves de Códax 2017

Last Thursday July 13th, Cristina joined forces with Galician Hip Hop singer Wöyza for a very special performance at the renowned Galician winery Martin Códax, in Cambados. The repertoire was a surprising journey from folk and World Music to Hip Hop and Soul, and even experimental music. The two artists were joined by the choir V-Go Negro Son Coro for beautiful renditions of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Andres Do Barro’s O Tren.

You can watch a video of their performance here:

Cristina Pato to Perform in New York Philharmonic’s Director Farewell Concert

Cristina Pato & NY Philharmonic - 2015

Cristina Pato performing with the NY Philharmonic – February 2015

On June 8th, for the first of NY Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert’s farewell concerts, Yo-Yo Ma, Edward Perez, and Silk Road Ensemble members Cristina Pato, Johnny Gandelsman, and Shane Shanahan join the New York Philharmonic and orchestra musicians from around the world. The concert, on the theme “celebrating the power of music to unite across borders,” will include Kinan Azmeh’s Ibn Arabi Postlude and Edward Perez’s The Latina 6/8 Suite, the work conceived and commissioned by Cristina and Silkroad for her Latina project. Alan Gilbert himself will join them at the violin.

Cristina has performed with the New York Philharmonic before: in February 2015 she became the first Gaita player ever to perform with the renowned orchestra, when they played Osvaldo Golijov’s Rose of the Winds. Here’s the link to a video recorded for Galician TVG news on the occasion.

Tickets for the concert are already sold out. For more info visit the NY Philharmonic site →.

An Evening with The Muse Seek Project in Santo Domingo

On May 27, Cristina joins fellow Silk Road Ensemble Members Shane Shanahan and Ko Umezaki for a special screening of Morgan Neville’s The Music of Strangers hosted by The Muse Seek Project in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Founded by Maria Batlle, the Project fosters inclusion and aims to open up the world of music to deaf children across the Dominican Republic.

The screening will be followed by a performance and panel discussion. More info at The Muse Seek Project website →

“My Lethe Story” with Cristina Pato and UCSB Musicians

On April 19th Cristina joins musicians from the University of California, Santa Barbara in an evening of music and discussion in which they’ll perform My Lethe Story: The River of Forgetfulness, the piece composed by Cristina and inspired by her mother’s struggle with dementia; followed by a panel discussion on how the sciences and the arts can learn from each other as they seek to understand memory and its loss. The panelists will also discuss student research opportunities on these issues in a new summer course that Cristina will co-teach with professors Ken Kosik (Neuroscience) and Kim Yasuda (Arts) at the UCSB. Memory: An Interdisciplinary Exploration will introduce students to the cross-disciplinary field of memory studies and demonstrate how different disciplines approach common questions. You can watch the video presentation here →. Click here → for more info on the event.

The course is supported by the generosity of Jody and John Arnhold. This initiative is sponsored by Jody and John Arnhold, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, College of Creative Studies, Department of Music, Department of Art, Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.

Cristina arrives at California after a week in the Nothern Cheyenne Reservation of Lame Deer, Montana, where the Silkroad continues to participate in interdisciplinary projects with Lame Deer students. You can read more about their work in this article: Musicians in ensemble founded by Yo-Yo Ma visit Lame Deer students

Skoll World Forum 2017

Skoll Forum: Anya Grundmann interviewing Cristina Pato and Kinan Azmeh
Skoll Forum 2017
Skoll Forum 2017

Cristina spent the first week of April in Oxford, UK, where she took part in the Skoll World Forum 2017. The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is the premier international platform for advancing entrepreneurial approaches and solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Cristina performed with fellow Silkroad member Kinan Azmeh at the Closing Plenary, whose Master of Ceremonies was Stephan Chambers, director of the Marshall Institute at the London School of Economics, and that also featured a Q&A with Anya Grundmann, Vice President of National Public Radio (NPR) (see picture above). Cristina also participated as a speaker, with John Hadfield, Roberto Comesaña and Kyle Sanna.

Silkroad’s Harvard Residency

A Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma with Wu Tong and Cristina Pato
A Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma with Wu Tong and Cristina Pato
A Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma with Wu Tong and Cristina Pato
My Lethe Story

Silkroad’s March 2017 residency at Harvard which included lectures, shows and workshops with Yo-Yo Ma, like the Louis C. Elson Lecture pictured above, was culminated with a Silk Road Ensemble’s concert at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre that featured Cristina’s piece My Lethe Story. The piece, inspired by Cristina’s own mother memory loss, explores the role that music, and arts in general, plays in healing. You can listen to Cristina and Lisa Wong, co-director of the Arts and Humanities Initiative at Harvard Medical School, reflect on the topic here →

My Lethe Story will also be featured in an upcoming performance that Cristina will give together with musicians from the University of California Santa Barbara, in an event that will combine music and discussion, titled The Arts of Memory: Music Meets Neuroscience.