Artist, Illustrator, Published Author, Multi-modal Communicator.
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Cristian Pinto Ferré
Musician, Composer, Artist, Prodigy, Law student.
My father’s elder brother. Leon, Spain.
July 16, 1924 - September 6, 1947
Welcome to our Music Recovery Project!
A Life in Music Commemorated
For as long as I can remember, we have had my uncle Cristian’s paintings, family portraits and music manuscripts in the family, but no one alive today has ever heard his music played. And yet, in Leon, the city of his birth, Cristian is commemorated, a seated figure crossed legged on the floor, in a sculptural group of three.
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Cristian’s music teacher, the conductor and composer Odon Alonso, (1899-1977) and the latter’s son, Odon Alonso Ordas (1925-2011), who went on to become a renowned conductor of the Madrid Philharmonic and other European orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, in the later 20th century, are also depicted.
The statue was erected in 2003 opposite the modern Music Auditorium of the city of Leon. Perhaps Odon Alonso Ordas commissioned the statue to to honour and commemorate his love of, and life in music, his father and first teacher, and his childhood companion and friend in music, our uncle Cristian.
The Music Recovery Project & Why it Matters
As an artist myself, and one who paints music, I feel my creative life and impulse has been shaped in some ways by this uncle that we never had a chance to know, and I wanted to give back. What better way than to meet Cristian through his passions, and his work, and have his music sound after 75 years of of silence once more? Otherwise, we would risk losing this treasure trove forever, as my father and his family of birth recede from living memory.
I needed to find someone who could evaluate the quality of my uncle’s music, who could transcribe Cristian’s handwritten scores into sheet music, so that the music can be played, performed, and recorded, and shared in concert with an audience. And I needed someone who could help me share my uncles’ story and why it matters. Art and music exalt the spirit and expand the human soul, and we need the arts now, more than ever.
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About Cristian’s Music
In 2023 I met Stephen James Ingram, a professional musician, based in London, Ontario, and now, Cristian’s music is becoming as much a part of his story as it is of mine and of my family, and of Leon. I am deeply grateful for this collaboration and of others to come, in Canada, and in Spain, as the project continues!
Cristian’s music is written in a classical romantic style, very expressive, nuanced, complex, beautiful and tending towards the melodic, or in a couple of instances, more dissonant, attuned to lyrics where they exist. He wrote for piano, voice and piano, violin and piano, and string quartet. We know that music was his most profound gift, and that his favoured instrument was the violin, although he also played piano and learned the viola on a few days notice, to fill in at a concert. We also know that he arranged performances of his string quartets at the Cathedral in Leon, with family and friends enlisted in several instances, to play the musical parts.
He took great care over details regarding performance and was trained in presentation with instruction in the scores given in Italian. He illustrated many of his compositions with beautifully detailed drawings in pen and ink with hints of watercolour. He included poems and lyrics where he used, or was inspired by them, and wrote in a flowing, very legible hand.
Cristian’s extant body of work in music includes: 33 scores, 166 handwritten pages, dated from 1941 to 1946, (when Cristian was aged 17-22).
More on Cristian’s Life & Works
Listen to Stephen’s performance of Cristian’s Bercuese above
Listen to Stephen’s comments about Cristian’s musical approach in Berceuse above
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Discover the full list of Cristian’s musical compositions
Have a look at Cristian’s original score for Berceuse
Discover photos and details of Cristian’s life – in Spanish
Details of Cristian’s life - in English translation
Death Notice and Obituary, broadcast by Radio Leon, on September 7, 1947 - in English Translation
