Praised by The Strad as “a leader playing with uncommon sensitivity,” Spanish violinist Cristina Prats Costa is a passionate and versatile baroque violinist dedicated to forging meaningful musical connections through collaboration and performance.

Her debut solo album, Spiritillo Mediterraneo (PENTATONE, 2026), has received widespread international acclaim. BBC Radio 3 praised its “brilliant performances full of Baroque imagination and virtuosity,” describing the interpretations as “wonderfully improvisatory,” while BBC Music Magazine highlighted Prats Costa’s “superb Baroque violin playing” and “compellingly virtuosic” performances. Gramophone described the recording as “a polished solo debut,” praising her “curvaceous elegance,” “increasingly virtuosic lines,” and “captivatingly expressive” playing. In the Netherlands, Opus Klassiek hailed Prats Costa as an artist who “brings Baroque music fascinatingly back to life in our own time through vitality, sensuality, communicative power, and absolute instrumental mastery.”

Her career has taken her to leading stages across Europe and North America with ensembles including The English Concert, Il Pomo d’Oro, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, L’Harmonie des Saisons, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Arcangelo, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Toronto Consort, and Theatre of Early Music, among many others. She is recognised for her imaginative musicianship, stylistic versatility, and collaborative spirit.

Cristina has received numerous distinctions, including the Baroque Music Prize and Special Award at the Manhattan International Music Competition (New York, 2025), the Christopher Hogwood Award (London), the Excellence Scholarship Award (The Hague), and the Shalom Ben-Uri Doctorate Recital Prize (Toronto). In 2019, she was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in recognition of her professional achievements.

She is also the co-founder and co-artistic director of Harmony Is in Our Hands, a Toronto-based concert series that combines artistic excellence with social impact through accessible performances supporting local charitable causes.

A committed chamber musician, Cristina is a founding member and former first violinist of the award-winning Alauda Quartet, recipients of the Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, the Park Lane Group Award, and the Making Music Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists. The quartet’s debut recording on Brilliant Classics features the complete string quartets of Roffredo Caetani and was produced with the support of the Caetani Foundation.

She studied at leading institutions in Europe and North America, including the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music, the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and The Juilliard School, where she completed a Master’s degree in Historical Performance in 2024. She is currently a DMA candidate in Performance at the University of Toronto, where her research explores ornamentation pedagogy and improvisatory practices in early Italian violin music.

When she is not on stage, Cristina can often be found on a mission to discover the best ice cream in town.