Back on December 10, 2022, I did a Google search: “Uruguay organists” and the name Cristina Garcia Banegas popped up. I recognized her name from previous American Guild of Organists conventions and luckily found her on Facebook. I knew I was taking a chance, but I contacted her through Facebook Messenger, and was so surprised to get a response right away!

The Uruguayan organist, conductor and music pedagogue, Cristina García Banegas, studied with Renée Bonnet and Renée Pietrafesa in Montevideo, Uruguay; Lionel Rogg at the Conservatory in Geneva, Switzerland, where she received the Premier Prix de Virtuosité; and Marie-Claire Alain at Rueil Malmaison’s Conservatory in Paris, France, where she received the Premier Prix d’Excellence avec Félicitations du Jury (1982). She perfected in various performig courses with teachers Monserrat Torrent, Guy Bovet, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Ton Koopman, Stefano Innocenti, Gertrud Mersiovsky, Adelma Gómez, Héctor Zeoli and Jesús Gabriel Segade, among others. She obtained the 1^st Prize of Virtuosity in the Geneve conservatoire (Switzerland), the Organ Echeverria Prize during the International Competition of Toledo (Spain) in 1981, and then the Prize of Professional Excellency, given by Pozos del Rey’‘s Rotary (2006). She later studied transverse flute at at Escuela Universitaria de Música (since December 2013).

Cristina García Banegas’ intense activity as an organist has taken her to Europe, Latin America, the USA, Japan, Israel, Russia, and Japan. Her diverse recordings include J.S. Bach, and Spanish and Latin American Baroque literature performed on period organs in Europe and Latin America, as well as some others as conductor of the Ensemble Vocal De Profundis in Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Bolivia, Argentina, Brasil and Uruguay. Many of these recordings have received notable recognition, as well as international awards.

Since then, we exchanged many, many text messages and today we finally met in person! Cristina made arrangements for me to play the organ at the Parroquia de Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón in Punta Carretas, only two blocks from our hotel. The organ was built by the German firm Walcker in 1953.

My Cada Día Spanish friends, David, Libbie, and Hanna, plus Marsha Walker and Janice Hayden and Elliot Quint all came along for the ride. I think for many of them this was the first time they’ve seen an organ up close and personal.

This being Eastertide, I decided to play Bach’s “Heut triumphiret Gottes Sohn” from the Orgelbüchlein, but I played four or five pieces besides, including Bach’s “Komm, heiliger Geist” which I always used to play at the Easter proclamation at the Vigil.

Afterwards we all went out for ice cream and invited Cristina to come along! What a lovely person!

¡Muchisimas gracias, Cristina, por ayudarme! Thank you so much, Cristina, for helping me.