Cristina Pato Lorenzo, known professionally as Cristina Pato, was born on August 17, 1980, in Orense, Spain, and is a Spanish bagpiper, composer, and pianist. At age six, she joined the Real Banda de Gaitas de Orense. At 18, she released her debut album Tolemia (1999), becoming the first woman to record a solo bagpipe album in Spain. She has collaborated with notable artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts from Rutgers University. Her albums include Xilento (2001), The Galician Connection (2010), Migrations (2013), and Latina (2015). She has performed extensively internationally. She received a Grammy Award in 2017 as part of the Silk Road Ensemble and was awarded the Medalla Castelao in the same year. In 2019, he was appointed to the Juan Carlos I Chair of Spanish Culture and Civilization at New York University.
