Morning Edition; Christian Serrano Torres

It's Morning Edition on 89.9K RPS. The NeoShow Arts Council is welcoming Christian Serrano Torres for an evening of Music in the Park. At Big Spring Park in NeoShow, the performance begins at 630 and is open to the public. Last week I spoke with Christian via Skype from his home in Belavista, Arkansas. I started off the interview by asking Christian about how he describes his music. I'll start by quoting a line from your website, which you can find at SerranoToros.com. You describe your music as classical to the bone with fire in your tone. Could you describe your brand of classical music? It's down to like, you're still formulating that. Yeah. So I always, I think the first thing when I'm thinking of music is always, it's just inherited classical innate upbringing that happened to me. So my approach is always seems to be a big classical when it comes to whether it's progressions, how my progressions are even sort of like technical things to bring to the table out of the cello.

You know, the fire in my tone is more of my desire to want to innovate and maybe even also the fact that I'm Puerto Rican, maybe got a little bit of that Puerto Rican rhythm and swag and the blood that always makes me, you know, kind of take a different look on the music I'm taking and maybe change up the techniques a little bit with the cello and the approach. That's more modern. Maybe in that place, cleanly here and there, slide some notes, you know, sort of add attributes from like all the other different genres like jazz or rock. So yeah, in my heart, I'm like classical, but I'm definitely trying to bring something to the table. And I think ultimately the fire is the passion that I have and for music and for cello and for trying new things. So that's the best way I can describe that. Who were some of the people, the contemporaries that you looked up to? When you think of your music, you know, you're probably, how old are you today? 29. I saw on your bio, you started playing when you were 12. Yes. So there's got to be, you know, some people you looked up to when you were 12 years old

and growing up. When I think of classical music, I think of mature audiences, you know. And I can see you really, you want to bust through that glass. I really do. Yeah, I definitely always want to keep it with me. I always try to play some classical music in my shows. I do a lot of restaurants right now. I'm doing like the whole three hour, you know, things that they use in restaurant. So usually I start playing a lot of the boxweeds. So I always try to bring the element to show people where I come from and where the cello comes from traditionally, but then I also try to have to show progress to start playing maybe more like the pop songs that arrange for cello than ultimately end with my own music, which I think is, I think, the pinnacle of, for me, anyways, being a musician is being, taking everything you have learned and all the music you like and then creating something new as that rings true to your soul and who you are as a person. And when you're saying all these influence and, and I'm thinking about listening to your music while you're talking, and I think about the music video that you made, all of that, it seems like you really, in that five minute or so music video really captures the essence

of what you're looking to, what you're looking to make. And in which video exactly, just curious. I think it was embrace. Embrace. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That was really cool. A song and video to make that too because I feel like that song was the heart of my album and it's nothing but old cello and I think, I think you won't, my audience and myself too. I think I'm going to be doing more of that stuff for sure too. It's something special about going back to my roots and I'm not even sure what to label how to like envision the genre of that song, but it's definitely more classical than any of mother songs for sure. And I think, I think it's got something that speaks through the Arkansas and I live in Bella Vista. So I basically live like in a jungle, or at least I like things though, but it's nothing but trees around me, surrounded me. We're not quiet in the country, but you can't really see any houses from where we're at. And something about a song is, it just speaks through about being outdoors and being in nature. Christian Serrano Torres, I want to thank you for your time this morning.

Yeah. Thank you so much for calling. You too. I spoke with Christian Serrano Torres last week from his home in Bella Vista, Arkansas. Via Skype, he will be performing this Thursday night at Big Spring Park in NeoShow. Their performance begins at 6.30 pm and is open to the public. It's a collaboration with the NeoShow Arts Council to learn more about Christian and his music. Visit his website at SerranoToris.com or to learn more about the NeoShow Arts Council, visit them on Facebook. We're at NeoShow Arts Council.