Eclectic composer Cristóbal MarYan began taking piano lessons when he was eight in Mexico with Pablo Flores, and not long after began composing at the age of twelve. Four years later, he traveled to Hong Kong to attend Li Po Chun United World College, where he developed various media and musical projects, primarily focusing on social issues. After graduation, he was admitted to New York University of Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in Music, graduating with Magna cum Laude.
Cristóbal studied composition with Carlos Guedes, Dimitris Andrikopolous, Mark Suozzo, and Michael Patterson. Cristóbal also spent a year in New York City studying Composition and Film Scoring at Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. In New York, he studied orchestration with Justin dello Joio, and attended a year long composer’s forum mediated by Julia Wolfe. Upon his return to Abu Dhabi, Cristóbal studied Ottoman Turkish Music with Zev Feldman, and Middle Eastern music with Andrew Eisenberg. He currently lives and works in Mexico City, where he studies with Enrico Chapela.
His works have been premiered and played in New York, Italy, Mexico, Abu Dhabi and Sri Lanka, performed by numerous musicians including the Verona Quartet, Philip Nolte (LSO,NSO UAE), members of the UAE NSO, Karl Kramer, Celina Charlier, Eshantha Jospeh Peiris, and Sebastián Espinosa Carrasco among others. He has written music and designed sound for plays devised by the Theatre Mitu Company and the Zoukak Theatre Company, as well as collaborating as composer and sound designer in student and independent productions. In 2015, he composed a number of tracks for Joanne Savio‘s “Home.” In 2013, he helped as music designer in the film “Of Many” directed my Linda Mills and produced by Chelsea Clinton.
