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Rossen Milanov, conductor
Cristina Pato, Galician Bagpipes (Gaita Galega)
Cristina Pato appears as a member of the SIlkroad Ensemble

Repertoire:

Octavio Vázquez: Widows of the Living and of the Dead   [18‘]
US premiere

Commissioned by Cristina Pato with support from New Music USA.*
*This concerto is part of Cristina Pato’s groundbreaking Gaita and Orchestra Commissioning Project

Intermission [20’]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony in B minor, op. 58   [55‘]

Rossen Milanov, conductor

Respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike, Rossen Milanov is in his third season as Music Director of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra following two seasons of enthusiastic acclaim. He is also the Music Director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Princeton Symphony, and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias (OSPA) in Spain.

Mr. Milanov has previously appeared with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the BBC, Baltimore, Mexico, Indianapolis, New Jersey, North Carolina, Seattle, Oregon, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras. His recent season highlights include Tchaikovsky’s critically acclaimed Alexei Ratmansky revival of Swan Lake in Paris with La Scala Ballet and in Zurich with the Zurich Opera, appearances with the Toronto, Colorado, Detroit, Milwaukee, Vancouver, Fort Worth, Aalborg, and National Symphony Orchestras, and his Link Up education projects at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Mr. Milanov has had the privilege to collaborate with some of the world’s finest artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Midori, and André Watts. During his eleven-year tenure with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Milanov served as Associate Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orchestra’s summer home at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts.  

Mr. Milanov studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Bulgarian National Academy of Music. In addition to his musical achievements, Mr. Milanov is a passionate chef and frequently dedicates his culinary talents to various charities.

Cristina Pato (Ourense, Spain 1980)

Artist and Interdisciplinary Educator.
Member and Learning Advisor: Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble
2017 Blodgett Distinguished Artist in Residence at Harvard University (Department of Music).

Cristina Pato is a master of the Galician bagpipes (gaita), a classical pianist, and a passionate educator. Hailed as “a virtuosic burst of energy” by the New York Times, her professional life is devoted to cultural exchange and forging new paths for the Galician bagpipe. Cristina has performed on major stages throughout the world and has released and produced six solo gaita albums and two solo piano recordings, and collaborated on more than 40 albums as a guest artist.

Education is a critical part of Cristina’s personal and professional life. She serves as Learning Advisor for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Project, has been an artist-in-residence at a number of universities, including Harvard and the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the founder of the multidisciplinary Galician Connection Festival, and writes a weekly column for the Spanish newspaper, La Voz de Galicia.

Cristina holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Rutgers University, degrees in piano, music theory, and chamber music from the Conservatorio de Musica del Liceu, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Cristina is getting her second PhD in Cultural Studies and has co-created a groundbreaking pilot class on Memory with neuroscientist Dr. Kenneth Kosik.

Octavio Vazquez, composer

The music of NYC-based composer Octavio Vazquez has been performed throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the National Auditorium of Spain, or the Moscow State Institute of Art. Described by critics as “a burning torch for the next century ..stunning ..superb” (The New Music Connoisseur, New York), “one of the foremost composers of his generation” (El País, Spain), “a polychromatic powerfield ..profound feeling” (Kölner MusikTriennale, Germany), his works have been recorded for labels like Naxos and Delos and broadcast by radio and TV stations such as PBS, PRX, New York’s WQXR, and Spanish, Chinese, and Russian national networks.

Mr. Vazquez has received commissions from the Royal Galician Philharmonic, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Galician Cultural Council, and National Radio and Television Orchestra of Spain among others, and fellowships such as MacDowell and I-Park Foundation. He has also written for film and collaborated with crossover artists as an arranger, orchestrator and producer, most notably with Grammy Award winner Cristina Pato. Other performers of his music include conductors such as Dima Slobodeniouk, Carlos Kalmar, Paul Daniel, and Andrew Grams, and soloists as Hilary Hahn, Dmitri Berlinsky, Jonathan Gandelsman, and Eldar Nebolsin.

A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid, Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Maryland, College Park, Dr. Vazquez currently teaches composition at Nazareth College of Rochester, NY.