Christian Velasco

After studying classical guitar in Mexico and early music in Switzerland, he has developed his technique and interpretation on various early plucked string instruments such as the theorbo, the renaissance lute, the baroque lute and the baroque guitar. His career as a performer is active between Europe and America, performing as a soloist and as a member of baroque and renaissance ensembles and orchestras, with whom he has had the opportunity to make recordings with music by Barbara Strozzi and Novohispanic music. 

During his first specialised studies in Mexico, he collaborated with a large part of the musical community specialising in baroque music and performed in the country’s most important venues. Throughout his immersion in European early music, he has performed with musicians such as Maurice Steger, Vivica Genaux, Manfredo Kraemer; and has taken courses and masterclasses with Hopkinson Smith, Jacob Heringman, Jakob Lindberg, Evangelina Mascardi, Joachim Held, among others. 

He was awarded with the First Prize at the 2024 International Lute Competition (Overstrand Festival of Early Music, UK), the Oude Muziek Utrecht Prize, and Second Prize at the Van Wassenaer Chamber Music Competition (Netherlands). He is currently finishing a second master degree with Julian Behr at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, with a special interest on improvisation and musical rhetorics.