Cristian Amigo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cristian Amigo (born 1963) is an American composer, improviser, guitarist, sound designer, and ethnomusicologist. His compositional and performing output includes blues and soul, music for the theater, chamber and orchestral music, opera, avant-jazz and rock music, and art/pop song. He has also recorded solo albums on the innova, Deep Ecology and BA labels. Amigo earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UCLA where he focused on the music of Chile, Peru, and Argentina, as well as anthropological theory, critical studies, and intercultural aesthetics. While in graduate school, he was second guitarist to the Peruvian Afro-Criollo guitarist Carlos Hayre, with whom he played in concerts and festivals including the World Festival of Sacred Music. He is currently composer-in-residence at INTAR Theater in New York City and Music/Design/Production Faculty @ CalArts School of Theater Department of Experience Design and Production in Valencia, California.
His awards include the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, a Senior Fulbright Scholar/Teacher/Artist Award (Bolivia 2016–2019), and the Van Leir Fellowship from Meet the Composer. His work has also been supported and/or produced by organizations including the Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), New York City Opera, Jerome Foundation, American Composers Forum, New York State Music Fund, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Danish Arts Council, Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, LAByrinth Theater Company, Boy Scouts of America, José Limón Dance Company, Sundance Institute's Film Composer Labs, UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance (APPEX/Asian Pacific Performance Exchange), CSI (CUNY) Foundation, ASK Playwright/Composer Labs, Durfee Foundation, Teatro del Pueblo (Minneapolis), Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, D.C.), INTAR, Oslo Elsewhere, and the 24 Hour Plays. His film scores have been featured at the Sundance Film Festival and the Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival in Los Angeles.[1] His writing appears in the college reader The Conscious Reader, and the Grateful Dead Live in Concert (MacFarland).
Born in Santiago, Chile, Amigo emigrated with his family to the United States as a child. His father Raul Amigo hosted a radio program on a local New Haven, CT. station which focused on the relationship between the music of Latin America and American popular music. At 12 years old, he began studying music with Joseph Torello in New Haven, Connecticut. Two years later the family moved to Miami, and Amigo began performing with a rock band he formed, Six Feet Under. He attended Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School (HML) and while a student there taught classes in guitar to his peers.[2] During his time at HML, Amigo took courses in music theory, classical guitar, and jazz at Miami-Dade Community College.
He entered the music program at Florida State University in 1980 at the age 17. While there he studied classical guitar under Bruce Holzman. After earning an Associate of Arts diploma from FSU, Amigo moved to Miami and actively performed in recording sessions and original and cover bands while attending music classes at University of Miami. His first recording session at age 17 was the top 40 Narada Michael Walden-produced "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" by Jermaine Stewart. He moved Los Angeles to pursue music and a university education and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from California State University, Northridge, and both a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also studied jazz with Kenny Burrell and Gary Pratt, and the sitar with Harihar Rao. His professors at UCLA included Anthony Seeger, Susan McClary, Edwin Seroussi, Tara Browner, Ali Jihad Racy, and Jacqueline Djedje. In LA he also studied composition with Wadada Leo Smith for a short time.
