Pianist Cristina Valdes has performed across four continents.  Committed to both contemporary and standard music, she is known for presenting innovative concerts with repertoire ranging from Bach to Xenakis. Her passionate interest in new music has led to collaborations with such renowned composers as Terry Riley, Joan Tower, Ezra Laderman, and Ned Rorem. She has also premiered the works of such younger composers as Evan Ziporyn, Orlando Garcia, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez. 

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Valdes has toured extensively with the Bang on a Can All-Stars and has performed with the Seattle Chamber Players, the Mabou Mines Theater Company, and the Parsons Dance Company.  From 1998-2001, she was a member of the award-winning chamber music group Antares.

She has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including an Arts International Grant, the Thayer Award for the Arts, an Artist Trust GAP grant, an American Composers Forum Encore grant, the W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship, first prize in the Ruth Slenczynska Solo Piano Competition, the Silver Medal in the Osaka International Chamber Music Festa, and an Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.

Ms. Valdes lives in Seattle, where she is the founder and director of the SLAM Festival, serves as Vice-President of the Board of the Washington Composers Forum, and is a Jack Straw artist-in-residence.