Christian Serrano-Torres doesn’t play your Mothers or even your Grandmother’s brand of classical music. The 29-year old Puerto Rican born cellist is blazing a career path of his own to create and establish his own musical voice. Christian says that the classical of his formal musical education is always going to be shine through but that his sound of mature classical mixed with a “bit of that Puerto Rican rhythm and swag, and blood that always make me take a different look.” I spoke with Serrano-Torres recently about his performance in Neosho, Missouri on Thursday September 19 in collaboration with the Neosho Arts Council. The performance starts at 6:30 pm and is open to the public. 

Speaking to Christian about his music and performing you can feel the energy from every word, it’s the same way that he performs. When somebody thinks about the genre of classical music in the US there are not considering Christian Serrano-Torres, who openly admits  that he doesn’t play every single note as clean as possible and that’s by design. He wants to draw both in the mature classical lover but he recognizes that at the core that is not who he is and works to shape and blur the lines of what classical sounds like today and into the future. 

Recently, Christian released his first full length album a project that he had been working on since August of 2017. “Embrace” is a collection of five original instrumentals and admits that the album is about “looking at yourself in the mirror, seeking deep within, and being okay with who you are”. But when you listen to Embrace you also hear Christian telling himself to Embrace the music that he has created because it is unique in a gerene that can be stuffy, difficult to break into and full of stereotypes. With Embrace, Christian effectively says, “I’m standing on the shoulders of classical giants and the composers that created it. But it’s my time now, and watch me go”.