Clark State Community College will welcome Cristina Pato to the Performing Arts Center on Saturday, January 27 as part of the Club Kuss Series presented by Mary Alice and Steve Neely.
A pop star of the gaita (the Galician bagpipe) in her native Spain, Pato moved to New York to attain her doctorate in collaborative piano and push her career in an entirely different direction. Pato daringly skirts the boundaries of jazz, classical and world music, and in her recent album LATINA, she and her band The Cristina Pato Quartet delve into the musical genre of Latin music.
“Pato sets her musical vantage points far from tradition, aided by her thoroughly simpatico collaborators in this trio: accordionist and composer Victor Prieto and percussionist Shane Shanahan,” said Adele Adkins, executive director of the Clark State Performing Arts Center. “Is this world music? Is it jazz? Does it matter? Whatever you call it, it's wild and entirely wonderful.”
Internationally acclaimed Galician bagpiper master, classical pianist and passionate educator, Pato enjoys an active professional 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. She is an active member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and serves as educational advisor for the Silkroad project.
In 1998, she 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’s unique and powerful style, full of passion and energy, has been acclaimed by The New York Times as “a virtuosic burst of energy.” The Wall Street Journal has called her “one of the living masters of the gaita.” Pato fuses the influences of Latin music, jazz, pop and contemporary music, and uses her artistry and unprecedented virtuosic skill to bring her musical vision to life.
Her latest album Latina (2015) has received critical acclaim, including a four and a half star review in Downbeat Magazine. The album explores the chains of cultural adaptation through the evolution of six beat rhythmic patterns originating in the Latin music of Europe and migrating to South America, and provides a diverse program of musical styles performed by an expert group of musicians fluent in jazz and folkloric music, the Cristina Pato Quartet.
Tickets for the Cristina Pato Quartet are available at ticketmaster.com. The show will begin at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, January 27 at the Clark State Performing Arts Center, 300 South Fountain Avenue in downtown Springfield.