Cristo Barrios
About
Cristo Barrios is a clarinettist who has forged an international career as a soloist and chamber musician, encompassing the classical, romantic, 20th-century and contemporary repertoire. Engagements have taken him to the Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin and Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, and Palau de la Música in Barcelona and Valencia. He has performed with the Elias, Minetti, Endellion, Arditti and Brodsky string quartets, the Fauré Piano Quartet, and soloists such as Romain Guyot, Asier Polo and Maxim Rysanov.
In 2013, he co-founded the Quantum Ensemble, known for an ambitious programming that combines contemporary works with music from the past three centuries. Barrios’ commitment to new repertoire has led him to commission 50 new works for clarinet and to 10 world premieres, including Gustavo Díaz-Jerez’s Ayssuragan (Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Antoine Marguier) and Nino Díaz’s Second Clarinet Concerto (Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev).
His fascination with composer-performer collaborations and philosophical issues in music inspired his PhD in Musicology (Complutense University, Madrid, 2012-2017). His doctoral research involved engaging directly with composers Einojuhani Rautavaara, Helmut Lachenmann, Kaija Saariaho and Jörg Widmann, as well as the leading clarinet soloists in contemporary music. His current research focuses on music pedagogy, where he combines philosophy and musicology to develop new teaching approaches and tools.
Barrios’ recordings include The Voice of the Clarinet (Divine Art), 20th Century Music for Clarinet (Metier), IAMUS (Melomics), Deep Light (Ibs Classical) and the symphonic poem Ayssuragan with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Signum Classics). He teaches clarinet and general music interpretation at the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska in Madrid and has delivered masterclasses at leading European conservatoires, such as the Norwegian Academy of Music, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Cologne Conservatory, the Liszt Academy in Budapest and the Amsterdam Conservatory. Barrios is an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and a Backun and Vandoren artist.
