Galician Performance, Dance Class Nov. 16 In Princeton

PRINCETON, NJ — Attendees to the Princeton University Concert event on Thursday, Nov. 16 can sit on stage and hear music from a Galician Bagpipe (gaita) virtuoso, and then learn Galician folk dance. Cristina Pato — an active member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble — will present the second event in the PUC125: Performances Up Close series with a pair of concerts.

The Performances Up Close series offers a format that allows the audience to sit onstage with the performer in an interactive hour-long program. Both performances are done in collaboration with the Cristina Pato Quartet.

At 6 p.m., Pato samples the diffusion of Latino music from her most recent CD “Latina.” At 9 p.m., the ensemble returns to explore the gaita’s folk roots and legacy across classical, jazz and world music with selections from “Migrations.”

In between, audience members are invited to the inaugural Dancebreak at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Room at Nassau Presbyterian Church for an opportunity to learn Galician folk dance. The dance class will be taught by Galician dance instructor Andres Camano.

Pato is an internationally acclaimed Galician bagpiper master, classical pianist and passionate educator. She has performed 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.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 the Chicago Symphony, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, jazz pianist Arturo O’Farrill, the New York Philharmonic, saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera and dancers Damian Woetzel and Lil’ Buck.

An active recording artist and performer since age 12, Pato has released and produced six solo gaita recordings and two as a pianist. She has also 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 (SONY BMG 2008) and the jazz album Miles Español: New Sketches of Spain (Entertainment One Music, 2011). 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. Holding a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (NJ), Pato is currently the Blodgett Distinguished Artist in Residence at Harvard University.

Tickets for the 6 p.m. performance are sold out, though more may be released closer to the concert. There are still tickets remaining for the 9 p.m. performance. They are $25 general admission, and $10 for student, available at princetonuniversityconcerts.org or by calling 609-258-9220.

Dancebreak is presented by Princeton University Concerts for the first time this year. Each dance class in the series is free for ticketholders, and is tailored to music performed at the concerts. It is led by professional dancers. For more information on Dancebreak, visit princetonuniversityconcerts.org.

The attached image of Cristina Pato was provided by Princeton University