Violin I

 

Described by The Strad magazine as a “quartet leader playing with uncommon sensitivity”, Spanish violinist Cristina Prats-Costa is a vibrant musician that enjoys performing both in modern and baroque violin. She is honoured to have been appointed Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM): an honour awarded to former students who have made a significant contribution to the music profession.

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Cristina performs regularly as the co-founder and first violin of the Alauda Quartet with whom she was awarded the Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, Park Lane Group and Making Music London artist, first prize and public prize winners at the International Chamber Music Competition “Massimiliano Antonelli” in Italy and prize winner at the Orlando International Competition. The Alauda Quartet was also artist in residence at Snape Malting, Aldeburgh in 2017 and attended the Evolution of String Quartet programme in Banff, Canada in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

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Her first CD features the complete string quartets of the Italian composer Roffredo Caetani released by Brilliant Classics with the support of the Caetani foundation receiving very good critics from Strad and Gramophone magazine. Moreover she recorded at Radio Nacional de España and has also been broadcast on Radio Vaticana in Rome and Kultur Radio in Deutschland.

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Cristina’s love for the sound-world of gut strings and the immense string chamber music repertoire led her to study baroque violin. She completed an Artist Certificate in Baroque Violin at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in 2020 The Hague in 2020 supported by the Excellence Scholarship. She finished a Professional Diploma on a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, London, on Baroque violin with Rachel Podger, where she holds the Christopher Hogwood Award. She is currently finishing a Master degree on a full scholarship at The Juilliard School of Music in New York.

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Cristina won a position with the London based Arcangelo Baroque Ensemble directed by Jonathan Cohen, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment experience scheme, has attended Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and receives regular lessons from Julia Wedman. Moreover she has performed with Southbank Sinfonia London, Orchestra of the Eighteen Century, Holland Baroque, Philharmonia de Madrid, Finish Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Napoletano, Brecon Baroque, and L’Harmonie des Saisons, Toronto Bach Festival, Southbank Sinfonia London, Philharmonia de Madrid, Jonc-Philarmonia de Barcelona and has performed in venues and festivals including Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Conway Hall, St Margarets Westminster, Kings Place, Kings Lynn Festival, Snape Malting Concert Hall, Friends of Beaminster Festival, Avon Valley Concerts, Stockbridge Music Festival, Lincoln International Concert Series, Palau de la Musica Catalana, Auditorio Nacional de Musica de Madrid, Auditori Nacional de Catalunya, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Rolston Recital Hall in Canada and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

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Cristina started learning the violin locally, in Ibiza, at the age of 5 and continued her studies at the Conservatori Professional de Music d’Eivissa before accepting a place at the Conservatorio Superior de Music del Liceu, Barcelona. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (BMus-Hons), Master of Arts in Performance (MA) and the LRAM teaching diploma from The Royal Academy of Music in London and a Master in Chamber Music from The Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover.

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Cristina plays a classical violin by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, kindly on loan from MERITO String Instruments Trust, Vienna and a baroque violin by David Tecchler, kindly on loan from the Museum of the Royal Academy of Music, London.