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Committed to both contemporary and standard repertoire, Cristina Valdés is known for presenting innovative concerts with repertoire ranging from Bach to Xenakis. She has performed across four continents and in a multitude of venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Recital Hall and the Kennedy Center. Her passionate interest in new music has led to a variety of collaborations with many composers including performing side by side with Joan Tower and Terry Riley, recording the works of Ezra Laderman and Ned Rorem, and premiering works by Evan Ziporyn, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, and Oliver Schneller among others. Her festival performances include the Foro Internacional de Musica Nueva in Mexico City, the Brisbane Arts Festival, the Festival of Contemporary Music in El Salvador, Theater de Welt in Stuttgart, the New Music in Miami Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and the Singapore Arts Festival.
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An avid chamber musician, Cristina has toured extensively with the Bang On a Can “All Stars” and has performed with the Mabou Mines Theater Company and the Parsons Dance Company. From 1998-2001, Cristina was a member of the award-winning chamber music group Antares, which commissioned, premiered, and recorded the works of contemporary composers in addition to performing piano trios and quartets from the standard repertoire. As a collaborative pianist, she has toured the US with Canadian Brass trumpet player Joe Burgstaller.
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Born and raised in Elizabeth, NJ, Cristina began playing the piano at the
age of three, and at age sixteen entered the New England Conservatory of
Music where she studied with Steve Drury. She continued her studies at SUNY
Stony Brook with Gilbert Kalish where she earned a Master's and a Doctor of
Musical Arts degree, was a member of the Graduate Piano Trio, and performed Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand under Gustav Meier. Other teachers have included Zenaida Manfugas, John Perry, Jerome Lowenthal and Claude Helffer. She has been the recipient
of numerous prizes and awards including an Arts International Grant, the Thayer Award
for the Arts, the W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship, first prize in the Ruth Slenczynska Solo Piano Competition, the Silver Medal in the Osaka Chamber Music Festa, and an Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music grant for a recording project of all 20th century piano music. Upcoming projects include a recording of Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez's "Mano a mano" and a CD of Latin-American works with flutist Asako Arai.
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