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Clarinettist · Researcher

Cristo Barrios

Clarinettist and researcher in musical performance.

His work brings together performance, recordings and performance pedagogy around a common question: how decisions about time, sound and structure shape musical meaning.

01Performance

Solo and chamber music.

02Recordings

Repertoire and new music.

03Research

Practice, listening and interpretative decisions.

04Pedagogy

Higher education and advanced performance.

Performance & Research

How a performancetakes shape.

Between a score and its realisation lies a field of decisions. Time, phrasing, articulation, colour and proportion do not act independently; together they create direction, tension and meaning.

Cristo Barrios performing Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto with Elim Chan and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra in 2018
2018Tenerife Symphony Orchestra · Elim ChanSpanish premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto, performed by Cristo Barrios.
  1. 01

    Listen

    Observe what is actually happening in sound before settling on an explanation.

  2. 02

    Compare

    Compare alternatives to distinguish intention, habit and audible effect.

  3. 03

    Decide

    Build a version that can be supported by its relationship to the work and to what is heard.

  4. 04

    Transfer

    Return to the repertoire with more precise criteria that can be applied in other contexts.

Explore performance work→

Artistic trajectory and recordings

The work comes before the label.

Cristo Barrios’s trajectory takes shape through repertoire, collaborations, commissions and recordings that make interpretative decisions audible in different contexts.

Cristo Barrios performing chamber music with piano and cello
2022 Quantum Ensemble · Asier Polo · Gustavo Díaz-Jerez Cristo Barrios (clarinet), Asier Polo (cello) and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (piano) in a Quantum Ensemble performance.

Selected recordings

Three journeys, three ways of listening.

View all recordings→
Deep Light cover
IBS Classical

Deep Light

Cristo Barrios · Andrew West

Maghek cover
Signum Classics

Maghek

Ayssuragan · Royal Scottish National Orchestra

XXth Century Music for Clarinet and Piano cover
Metier

20th-century music

Clarinet and piano

Performance Pedagogy

Develop judgement, not reproduce a version.

In higher education and master’s programmes, the work begins with real problems of performance. Comparative listening, analysis, improvisation and testing alternatives help make the criteria behind a musical decision more explicit.

Performance Pedagogy →
Cristo Barrios working with a group of performers
01Repertoire

The starting point is always a work and a specific interpretative need.

02Experimentation

One variable is changed at a time in order to hear what changes and why.

03Autonomy

The aim is for each performer to construct, revise and defend their own decisions.

Cristo Barrios performing with violist Maxim Rysanov at a Quantum Ensemble concert in 2020
2020 Quantum Ensemble · Maxim Rysanov Cristo Barrios (clarinet) with Maxim Rysanov (viola) in a Quantum Ensemble performance.

About Cristo Barrios

Performance, research and pedagogy within a single trajectory.

Cristo Barrios has worked as a clarinettist, chamber musician, recording artist, researcher and teacher. His trajectory includes performances in international venues, new-music projects, recordings and more than a decade of pedagogical work in higher education.

Wigmore HallCarnegie HallConcertgebouwPhD in MusicologyCentro Superior Katarina Gurska
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Press & Materials

Biographies, photographs and professional materials.

A section prepared for institutions, media, collaborators and artistic projects.