Born in Santiago de Chile, Cristina Gallardo-Domas studied at the at the Escuela Moderna de Música, where she gained her higher diploma in singing. She completed her studies at the Julliard School in New York.

Her debut took place in 1990, at the Municipal Theatre, Santiago, in the title-role of Madama Butterfly. She took part in various singing competitions, garnering top-prizes, such as the Queen Elisabeth, Pavarotti, Licia Albanese competitions and Young Artist Emergency Fund. In 1993 she debuted in Europe, in Suor Angelica at the Spoleto Festival, and at Teatro alla Scala in La Rondine in 1994.

She has been invited to the most important international opera houses, such as the La Scala of Milan, the Metropolitan of New York, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House of London, and in the cities of Paris, Munich, Berlin, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, the Salzburg Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and in Tokyo.

She has worked with renowned conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Nicolas Harnoncourt, Christian Thielemann, James Levine, George Prêtre, Valery Gergiev and with the directors Franco Zeffirelli, David Poutney, Harry Kupfer, Peter Stein, Willy Decker, Juergen Flimm, Robert Carsen and Anthony Minghella.

In summer 2008, she recorded Puccini’s Edgar at Torre del Lago Festival for the label Unitel.
She performed in the world premier of the opera Il Postino, inspired by Pablo Neruda’s literary works, staged in Los Angeles in 2010, and then in Wien and Paris.
Most recently she performed La Vida Breve in Valencia, title that she will sing again in 2012.