• Born 1948 in Los Angeles, CA

Biography

Christina Walewska was born to a musical family. Her father was a dealer in rare stringed instruments. Her mother was a violinist. When Christina was eight years old she began studying with her father, using a one-eighth-sized instrument.

She started study with the great Gregor Piatigorsky, who taught in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California. In the same year, at the age of 13, she made ber concert debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.

She won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire when she was 16. There she studied with Maurice Marechal. She won first prize in cello and chamber music, the first American student to win both in the same year.

Her European debut was in Germany in 1963. Despite her youth, she suddenly found she had established a thriving concert career. She toured in Europe, Japan, and throughout the Americas. At the age of 18, when she played her first concert in Argentina, she fell in love with the country. She made three wildly successful appearances at the huge Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

From that time onward she has based her life and concert career in Buenos Aires. She subsequently married and settled there.

She became controversial when she became the first American artist invited to play in Cuba under the Castro government. When she returned, she made statements concerning the lack of class distinction and absence of poverty she observed in the country, and praised its efforts in music education.

She has a strong tone, and a wide interest in the repertoire. Her recording of the Khachaturian concerto and the original version of the Prokofiev concerto has attained status as a classic. ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide