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COMPOSITION REVIEWS
VENEZUELA "When I met Christopher García at the LATIN AMERICAN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL in San Francisco, as he rehearsed and played one of his pieces for ancestral Mexican percussion instruments and wind quintet, I rediscovered something I had somehow lost track of throughout the years: a musician rooted in the rituals of magical performance. Beyond the external aspects of power, virtuosity or any other relative term of comparison, there was something unique coming across, akin to a religious experience, through his beats and rhythms. I think Christopher is definitely on the path of connecting the objects he strikes or shakes with the deeper currents of the soul. That's what I felt when he played; he's not only resuscitating old instruments, he's on a different search." COMPOSER PAUL DESENNE USA “the music this gentleman creates is organic, while at the same time being virtuosic, and compelling on many different levels....Garcia's compositions combine musical sonorities and timbres of the ancients with the present to create new resonances, timbres, and sonorities previously unimagined…” PERFORMING ARTS LIVE GERMANY "While he has devoted much of his life to learning indigenous music Garcia also revels in playing the new and unexpected…..Garcia's musical vocabulary not only spans centuries and cultures it's also spontaneous." DEUTSCHE WELLE GERMANYS INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTER NPR - USA "Christopher Garcia has been a great friend of KPFK’s Global Village because he plays the most extraordinary music on the most extraordinary instruments with the most extraordinary musicians, and the music …. is exquisite….. it's not even music, it's an EXPERIENCE, sometimes you don't even hear it, you just feel it. This is magical stuff" JOHN SCHNEIDER, NPR, KPFK's GLOBAL VILLAGE USA “Garcia’s music resonates organically, and never seems contrived or slapped together as he draws from the rich color of sounds at his disposal, and where and how he chooses to place the silences within and around his compositions and performances. The music has a rhythmic complexity that propels and co exists with memorable melodies that tie the pieces together - combining and extending traditions, his is a unique voice in the tradition of composer/performer/improviser with instruments not generally associated with the instruments of the “western classical world"." LATINOLA.com USA “Christopher Garcia knows where the deep water runs …. crouched over a floor arrayed with nonstandard instruments: water drums, hand drums, a couple of gongs, a tawitol, a couple of slate slabs that looked as if the Ten Commandments might've been etched on them…. at one point Garcia removed the gourd resonator from a water drum, scooped water into it and poured it back into the base -- water into water…… The tacit acknowledgment of eternal cycles marked one more reason why we sat so quietly, hearing and feeling things words can't express.” METAL JAZZ.com USA "Percussionist Chris Garcia nearly stole the show, beating on the cajon with a bare ankle, slapping cymbals with his hands, sending chipped bits of his mallets flying into the air, and even using his body as a percussion instrument." SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE USA "Garcia Godinez duo features the pedal harp performed by Tasha Smith Godinez and Christopher Garcia playing a variety of indigenous breath, string and percussion instruments from Mexico. Garcias's original compositions featuring these unusual instruments were performed brilliantly….. This combining of Western pedal harp with indigenous Mexican instruments is a new and creative approach in the World Music scene." CENTER FOR THE ARTS WESTERBECK RECITAL HALL PASADENA CITY COLLEGE USA "Then there’s Christopher Garcia…. I heard and saw the spirit of his connection to the earth, to the soil from which we all come, and to the cosmos of which we are all a part. He reminded me through the sound of instrument and voice, of who and what I am and that I need to be reminded of that aspect of self again and again." KUCI USA "unusual instrumentation does not necessarily mean compelling music, and while some musicains "throw instruments together" for the sake of trying to be different, the music this gentleman creates is organic, while at the same time being virtuosic, and compelling on many different levels...." LATINOLA.com MEXICO "Christopher Garcia is a critically acclaimed composer, and virtuosic improviser on instruments not usually associated with just one musician including drumset, marimba, and instruments of north and south India and breath, string and percussion instruments of Mesoamerica, in every music combination possible - avant, classical, folkloric, indigenous, jazz, rock, and world, with a virtual who’s who of musicians with performances in 28 countries on 5 continents." ATENCION SAN MIGUEL ALLENDE, MX INDIA "We hear a variety of percussion…..they sing and throb to the pulse of a single person, Christopher Garcia. He produces an extraordinary array of sound and rhythms, effortlessly weaving in and out of familiar Indian patterns to those of the Americas…..” SRUTI MAGAZINE INDIAS PREMIER MAGAZINE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS MEXICO "The interaction between the members of the Garcia Godinez Duo, comprised by harpist Tasha Smith-Godinez and renaissance man and multi-percussionist Chris Garcia, is full of flare, poise and bravura; it defies the listener at every moment as the duo provides dynamic and bold concoctions, instead of the expected polite and amicable conversations. As an ensemble, this duo offers infinite possibilities as its members are exuberant and facile even in the most treacherous of passages. I cannot wait to compose music for them" JOSE GURRIA GURISONIC ORCHESTRA Composer, drummer, arranger, educator USA "Christopher Garcia, a native of East Los Angeles, attended the California Institute of the Arts in 1979 and continues to compose, improvise, concertize, lecture, and share his personal experiences with indigenous music, instruments, culture, and culture bearers, and history of Mesoamerica at universities and concert halls worldwide along with the physiological effects of music, rhythm, and drumming which continue to be validated daily through neuroscience, confirming the information left to us by the ancients....." OTIS ARTS INSTITUTE MEXICO "We continue to commemorate our ancestors, this time, in a special way with a concert by Christopher García, a multifaceted musician who visits the Botanical Garden to awaken our senses with ancestral musical instruments...." JARDIN BOTANICO CHARCO DEL INGENIO, SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE INDIA "Christopher Garcia, a multi-faceted percussionist, added an eclectic array of musical instruments from Mexico, India, and other places creating an imaginative array of sounds along with the movement." NARTHAKI.COM USA "Christopher has a way of composing evocative structures rather than specific notes and this allows us to interpret the music in ways that are personal and immediate. Often he'll have a suggestion for a harmonic movement, but it will be up to us whether to implement it and when. This is very powerful because having the opportunity to change the music as we feel it at the moment helps us grow and learn. I admire this composing style and I'm hoping some of Chris skill will rub off!" MICHAEL MANRING BASSIST/COMPOSER USA "Christopher Garcia dedicated "With his Hat in his Hand" to his father, Don Alberto Garcia and like much of his other music it was a piece of humility, confidence, clarity, and positive feeling - a pleasure to listen to." LA JAZZ SCENE USA "Christopher Garcia, an artist known equally for his accomplishments as both adept player of North and South Indian instruments such as tabla and driving American drum set player) with the likes of the Frank Zappa alumni band, The Grand Mothers of Invention and the Bobby Bradford Mo’tet), the group reflects Garcia’s ongoing interest in honoring, exploring, and blending different musical cultures and their unique instruments. With Garcia always successful in his role as multicultural musical ambassador as well as sensitive and tasteful manifestor of thoroughly enjoyable musical experiences." OPEN GATE THEATER MEXICO "México Atemporal is a series of musical compositions and improvisations that surge from an ongoing exploration of the symbiosis between indigenous instruments of Mexico and Mesoamerica, the pianoforte, and the electronic manipulation of sound in real time. This exploration is guided and based in the study of Mesoamerican codex, the Mexica dance tradition, and the study of classical and jazz pianist and composers such as Cage, Debussy, Armengol and Bill Evans. This unique collaboration between Christopher Garcia and Pablo Leñero seeks to intertwine the resonances of the past and present of Mexico." TIEMPOLIBRE.MX |
new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
woodwind quintet
QUINTETO LATINO
new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
woodwind quintet
QUINTETO LATINO
new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
pedal harp
GARCIA GODINEZ DUO
MUSIC BEYOND BORDERS
new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
pedal harp
GARCIA GODINEZ DUO
MUSIC BEYOND BORDERS
MEXICO ATEMPORAL
new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
pianoforte
new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
pianoforte
new compostions for indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and classical guitar
performed by
MEXCLA MUSIC
with
composed by
Christopher Garcia and Jeronimo Rajchenberg
TARANATH
composed by C. Garcia
performed by
ANADIS MUSIC
Jie Ma - pipa
John L. Stephens - sitar
cg - tabla
EARLY MOURNING SHADOWS
composed by C. Garcia
performed by
CONTINUUM
MUSIC for
piano forte
electric bass
soprano saxophone
EL MONSTRO PERCUSSION
YET AGAIN
composed by C. Garcia
as performed by
Alex de Grassi
Michael Manring
cg - El Monstro Percussion
composed by C. Garcia
as performed by
Alex de Grassi
Michael Manring
cg - El Monstro Percussion
new compostions for indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
performed by
XOCHI CUICATL
with
Christopher Garcia and Alegria Garcia
Garcia has been invited to perform his compositions
in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Europe, Korea
by the following ensembles
ANADI MUSIC
music for sitar and percussion of India, breath instruments of India, bass flute, bass clarinet
http://anadismusic.weebly.com/
ANADI MUSIC ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/pages/ANADI-MUSIC/217503695021311?fref=ts
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ANCIENT GROOVES
music for instruments of Africa, Asia and the Americas
http://ancientgrooves.weebly.com/index.html
ANCIENT GROOVES ON FACEBOOK
http://www.facebook.com/ANCIENTGROOVES
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CONTINUUM WEBSITE LINKS
music for keyboards, electric bass, saxophone
continuummusic.weebly.com/
CONTINUUM ON FACEBOOK
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Continuum-Music-Group-Jazz-Rock-World-Fusion/115458121868742
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GARCIA GODINEZ DUO SITE
Music for indigenous instruments of Mexico and Western Harp
http://garciagodinez.weebly.com/
GARCIA GODINEZ DUO ON FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/Garcia-Godinez-Duo-1690860077800873/
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THE GRAND MOTHERS OF INVENTION
the MUSIC of FRANK ZAPPA
http://www.grandmothersofinvention.weebly.com/
GRAND MOTHERS OF INVENTION ON FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/GRANDMOTHERSOFINVENTION/
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LOST TRIBES PRODUCTIONS SITE
music for instruments of Meso America
http://losttribezproductionz.weebly.com/lost-tribes.html
LOST TRIBES PRODUCTIONS ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Losttribesproductions/330823677087686?ref=bookmarks
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MANRING GARCIA MUSIC SITE
manringgarciaduo.weebly.com/
music for acoustic guitar, fretless bass and hand and stick percussion of India and beyond
MANRING GARCIA MUSIC ON FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/ManringGarciaakamaniax?ref=hl
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MEXICO ATEMPORAL
https://mexicoatemporalmusic.weebly.com/
Music for pianoforte, electronics, indigenous breath, string and percussion instruments of Mexico /Mesoamerica
MEXCLA MUSIC SITE
Music for indigenous instruments of Mexico, classical guitar,
prepared guitar, charango, requinto jarocho and more
mexclamusic.weebly.com/
MEXCLA MUSIC ON FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/Mexcla-Music-749227918519839/?ref=br_rs
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QUETZALCOATL MUSIC
folkloric music of Mexico, Central and South America
http://quetzalcoatlmusic.weebly.com/
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QUARTETO NUEVO MUSIC
1999 THRU 2015
music for acoustic guitar, cello, woodwinds and percussion of India and Beyond
http://quartetonuevomusic.weebly.com
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RESONANCIA CHAMBER MUSIC MULTI MEDIA COLLABORATION
https://christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/resonancia-multi-media.html
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TALES FROM THE SILK ROAD
music for shakuhachi, yokobue and perrcussion of India and Meso America
http://talesfromthesilkroad.weebly.com/
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XOCHI CUICATL/FLOWER SONGS MUSIC
https://christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/flower-songs.html
