Pablo Carpintero Arias

Birth Date: 20th April 1969
Birth Place: San Cristovo de Castro - Carballedo (Lugo)
 Curriculum

He studied Secondary Education in Chantada and Biology in Santiago de Compostela. He took his doctor’s degree in Sciences in 1992 at the University of Santiago de Compostela and nowadays works as a researcher at the Institute of Orthopaedics and Bank of Musculoskeletal Tissues. He is a Professor of Biochemistry since 2003 (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. University of Santiago de Compostela).
He began to play the ‘gaita de fol’ when he was eight and when he was eighteen, he founded the Pipe Band of Val do Asma Cultural Association (Chantada) and ‘Folerpas de Chantada’. Some years later, he entered ‘Cantigas e Agarimos’ and together with other friends, he founded ‘Obradoiro de Cultura Tradicional ULTREIA’ in Santiago de Compostela (1992). Nowadays, he is preparing his second doctor’s degree in the Art History Department (Faculty of History) about the ‘gaita de fol’ in Galicia. In 1999, he founded a group of ‘requinteiros’ (two pipes, two ‘requintas’, drum and bass drum) and edited ‘A Requinta de Xián’ (2003).
Nowadays, he teaches ‘gaita de fol’ in several associations and schools: St Comba Municipal Pipe School, pipe group of Rosalía de Castro Cultural Centre (Cacheiras), ‘A Requinta de Xián’ and the instrumental section of ULTREIA. Since 2003, he has been collaborating in ‘Lume na Palleira’, a programme on Radio Galega with a section about Galician traditional music (‘O Recuncho da Palleta’). Throughout 2004, he participated in the morning programme of Xusto Carril with a section about traditional songs. In 2005, he entered the board of directors of the Association of Galician Pipers, where he developed an interesting Project for divulging our musical folklore.

 Work & Activities

Since 1992, he has been searching for information about our traditional music and instruments. As a result of his work, he edited ‘Os sons esquencidos’ in 2000. He has been working with Edicións do Cumio in collaboration with Radio Galega since 2004, preparing a collection of records of old pipers. He collaborated as a piper with the chamber group of the University of Santiago de Compostela in ‘In Itinere’. He also recorded ‘Andando Camiño’ and ‘Eiquí...Acolá...’. In 2005, he began to collaborate with ‘Resonet’, a baroque music group directed by Fernando Reyes, making a record based on the stories of an Italian pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela in the 18th century. He presented several reports in national and international conferences on musicology about the ‘gaita de fol’ and the Galician traditional instruments. In collaboration with Pontevedra City Council, he organized an exhibition of Galician traditional instruments in 2005. He gave all his research works and recordings carried out in these years to the ‘Consello da Cultura Galega’ so that anyone interested in them can digitalize and study them.

 Other Interesting Aspects

In 2000, he got a studio for making and mending Galician traditional instruments. As a member of ULTREIA, he has performed all around Galicia, in many Spanish cities and abroad (Finland, France, Portugal and Norway). He performed his music as a soloist in Bergen (Norway), representing Santiago de Compostela in the meeting of European Capitals of Culture 2000.