Stadsorgelconcert in de Grote of St. Bavokerk
Cristina Banegas
Haarlem is known worldwide as the city of organs. The city has two top organs with a monumental status: the Christian Müller organ in the Great or St. Bavo Church and the Cavaillé-Coll organ in the PHIL.
The Uruguayan organist, conductor, and music educator Cristina García Banegas studied with Renée Bonnet and Renée Pietrafesa in Montevideo (Uruguay) and with Lionel Rogg in Geneva, where she received the Premier Prix de Virtuosité. At the conservatory in Paris, she continued her studies with Marie-Claire Alain, where she was honored with the ‘Premier Prix d’Excellence avec Félicitations du Jury’.
Cristina García Banegas has given many concerts in Europe, Latin America, the United States, Israel, Russia, and Japan. As a conductor, she founded several (baroque) orchestras in Uruguay with which she performed, among other works, the St. Matthew Passion and the Magnificat by J.S. Bach, Handel's Messiah, and Mozart's Requiem. She gained significant recognition through this. Cristina Garcia Banegas is a professor of organ studies at the ‘Escuela Universitaria de Música de la Universidad de la República’ in Montevideo and of the ‘Selección Coral del Colegio Inglés’. She is the founder of the ‘Ensemble Vocal e Instrumental De Profundis’ and the ‘International Organ Festival of Uruguay’.
In 2007, Cristina Garcia Banegas received three awards in Uruguay: the ‘Woman of the Year Prize’, the ‘ALAS (Wings) Prize’ for artists, and the ‘Foundation Bank Itaú First Choir’s Reward’. Recently, she released four new CDs featuring recordings from the Mariakerk in Gedinne and the Hofkirche in Dresden, as well as a recording dedicated to colonial organ music from Latin America, recorded in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. The fourth CD includes premieres of contemporary organ works performed by various organists. Cristina García Banegas lives and works in Montevideo, Uruguay.