Cristina Pato

A digital production available online only, presented by the Chan Centre

Watch online from Oct 23. Flexible pricing, $0 – $20. 

Read about the virtual experience here.

Cristina Pato is a vibrant and virtuosic force of nature who has spent her musical career thwarting expectations and winning over the hearts of audiences around the world with her unequivocal mastery of the Galician bagpipe. When she performed with her quartet at the Chan Centre two seasons ago, The Vancouver Sun hailed the concert as “nothing short of a revelation,” citing it as one of the best shows of the year and describing her playing as “joyous, expansive, exciting… [and] never less than amazing.”

Also a classical pianist, writer and educator, Pato skillfully moves between jazz, classical and folk styles in wide-ranging collaborations with ensembles like the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony to artists like Arturo O’Farrill and Paquito D’Rivera. She is an active composer and regularly tours the world with Silkroad, founded by Yo-Yo Ma. For this special Chan Centre digital concert, Pato will perform from her home in the Galicia region of Spain.

Program notes:

There is something fascinating about being in between. On the one hand, it gives you the freedom and the ability to choose where you’d like to be and belong at a specific time. On the other hand, it gives you perspective and a sense of unstableness, which is sometimes as frustrating as it is encouraging. I made my career by being in between, as a musician in between musical worlds, as a teacher in between disciplines, and as an immigrant, in between cultures.

“The Inbetweener” is a journey navigating across the musical worlds I learned through my instruments, and a journey through the different ways of understanding the role of culture in society. As a professional bagpiper (Galician bagpipes), and as a classical pianist (collaborative piano), I learned how to appreciate the beauty and importance of difference by living in between popular and classical music. This event explores the questions that arise from that particular perspective. – Cristina Pato

"An excellent improviser whose musicality explodes with energy and fire, Pato commanded the stage and roused the audience to a rapturous and rowdy ovation"

New York Classical Review

Filmed in Spain in September 2020.