Patricia Garcia Gil

Postdoctoral Associate and Artist in Residence

Overview

Patricia is the current Postdoctoral Associate and Artist in Residence at the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards at Cornell University. A versatile musician, she has won numerous international piano and fortepiano competitions, and her brilliant career has already given rise to numerous concert tours throughout the world. Her concerts have been showcased by the Spanish National Radio and Radio Catalunya, the French National Television, and the Hong Kong Radio-Television, attracting the interest of the press that has described her performances as “set apart by consummate musicianship, confident technique and elegant interpretation that manifested itself across the wide range of repertoire on her program”, “tremendous energy and precision”, “clean, sensitive playing”, “originality, genius, mastery, virtuosity, interaction with the listeners”. 

Patricia’s ongoing professional endeavors in the USA include performances, presentations, publications, and service with both national and international organizations. Highlights include solo performances with the Orchestra of New Spain in Dallas, Texas, debuts at the Berkeley (2022) and Bloomington Early Music Festivals (2023 and 2024) and being named an “Early Music America Emerging Artist” of 2022. In 2023, her article on Latin American and Spanish music preserved by women was published in the EMA magazine’s “Early Music: The Americas” series, and her research on the eighteenth-century composer Marianna Martines was presented at Cornell University. Patricia maintains an active career in Europe as well: in Spain, she is a fortepiano artist in the roster of Youth Musicians (after winning the first edition of their well-stablished annual competition that included the fortepiano in the category of Early Music instruments and ensembles); in France, she is a regular guest of the Early Music series at L'Abbaye aux Dames, where she has been artist-in-residence during the summer of 2023 (through the Odyssée Art Residencies supported by the French Ministry of culture); in the Netherlands, she is regularly invited to perform at the Geelvinck Fortepiano Festival; and in Italy, she frequently performs at the Bartolomeo Cristofori Academy, the Villa Bossi, the APM Saluzzo, and the Karl Jenkins Association. 2025 projects include concerts as soloist with the Orchestra Ars Lyrica in Houston (TX), and imparting masterclasses at the Catskills Foundation in upstate New York and the Conservatorio di Bologna in Italy.

Patricia believes to be a complete musician one must extend themselves in many forms of art. She plays a wide repertoire on early keyboards and modern piano, including contemporary music. She is also an actor, appearing in plays regularly, and she helps create shows which combine music, painting, and theatre. With her repertoire choices and research, she strives for inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility by enhancing the profiles of underrecognized female composer-pianists, outreach to audiences who tend to connect rarely with classical music, the integration of verbal and musical modes of informing listeners, and the harnessing of video and internet media to reach a potentially unlimited online audience. Her philosophy is reflected in initiatives such as the development of a piano method that incorporates theater components, the production of the mini-documentaries series "The Piano: Past and Future", the creation of a documentary about Hélène de Montgeroult, Pauline García-Viardot, and Marguerite Labori funded by the European Union (Creative Europe- i-Portunus), a CD featuring the complete Piano works by García-Viardot including unedited pieces, and her contributions to the website ||:HerClassical:|| that provides accessible editions and recordings of eighteenth-century women composers. 

Patricia holds a DMA in Historical Keyboard Performance with a focus in Fortepiano from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she was mentored by Andrew Willis. Her dissertation on the eighteenth-century composer Marianna Martines’s keyboard sonatas, which includes a new edition from the earliest sources, is available at ProQuest. She holds a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Organ performance and a Minor in Theatre from the same institution, a Master in Fortepiano Performance from the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence (Italy), and a Master in Piano Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music of Manchester (UK).

Patricia serves on the Board of Directors of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America, the Emerging Professional Leadership Council of Early Music America, the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies (DEI committee) and co-hosts the popular virtual program the International Fortepiano Salon with Maria Rose and Yiheng Yang.

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