” Guitarist-composer Cristian Amigo straddles the contemporary-classical, improv and rock worlds…. During any given performance, Messiaen grapples with Led Zeppelin while Perez Prado teaches Stravinsky to mambo.”
-TIME OUT NEW YORK
Welcome to my official site and blog, and thanks for supporting my creative work in music. I hope you’ll find the site useful. There is information about my musical self, and gigs and recordings, as well as posts about guitar playing, composing, producing, and teaching. Also, ruminations on our sonic lives. -Cristian
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“ I kind of hate myself for digging this abrasive clatter [War is Good for Business] because it’s galaxies away from my Beatles- and Beethoven-forged sense of composition. But it rocks real hard against its orchestra of bloops and bleeps, and then breaks down to a mournful sound collage. A great theme for Halliburton’s symphony of opportunism.
-GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE
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Cristian Amigo is an American composer, guitarist, and producer who explores connections between art (classical and jazz) music and American popular and roots musics; and between through-composed and improvised music. Known as an acoustic and electric guitarist, Amigo writes avant-music for chamber ensembles, opera, theater, and film; he composes and performs fierce riffs and songs in roots, improvised, and experimental music groups.
His awards include fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and Meet the Composer. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the American Composers Forum, and Innova Recordings, among many others. The 2012 New Grove Dictionary of American Music will contain an entry on Cristian and his music.
Cristian holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA where he specialized in the guitar-centric folk musics of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. He is currently composer-in-residence @ INTAR theater in New York City. Cristian fronts the Americana/Blues band THE GOTHAM ROOTS ORCHESTRA and is partial to the Gibson Les Paul Standard and Fender telecaster deluxe. He lives in New York City with his wife and two cats.
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