• Postdoctoral Fellowship, New York University
• DMA, composition, Temple University
• MM, guitar performance, Temple University
• Superior Degree, guitar performance, Royal Conservatory Superior of Music (Spain) and National Institute of Music (Panama)

Emiliano Pardo-Tristán was born in Panama and has resided in Philadelphia since 1992. He studied composition with Maurice Wright and guitar with José Luis Rodrigo, José Luis González, Ricardo Cobo and in master classes with Manuel Barrueco. Pardo-Tristán has participated in composition seminars taught by Leo Brouwer at the Cordoba Festival, IRCAM's Summer Academy in Paris led by composers Jonathan Harvey and Gérard Grisey and a workshop at Carnegie Hall on Le Marteau sans Maître with maestro Pierre Boulez. 

Pardo-Tristán has been active as a professional performer since 1988, and has given solo and chamber music recitals, as well as concerts with orchestras in Panama, Martinique, Austria, the United States, Spain, Mexico, and Chile. He has recorded and produced seven CDs, two of them entirely dedicated to his own compositions. His music has been played by the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Grand Rapids Orchestra, Jackson Symphony, Panama National Orchestra, and Temple University Orchestra; and by noted ensembles and soloists from Europe, Latin America, and the United States. He has been awarded by the American Composer Forum, Presser Foundation, Society of Composers INC., the Pennsylvania Council on the Art's, Society of Music Theory and Ibermúsicas, and received the Dr. John Henry Heller, Jr. Memorial Award for excellence in composition at Temple University. In 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023, he won the Roque Cordero Panama National Composition Contest, with his orchestral, chamber and solo works

In 2020, Pardo-Tristán unanimously won the Ricardo Miró National Literature Contest in Panama, with his novel Lo blanco y lo negro. He has given conferences and presented his novel at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Spanish and Portuguese Department at Temple University and Panama National Library among other places.

Pardo-Tristán has taught lessons to music majors and non-majors, in and around Philadelphia at New York University, Temple University, La Salle University, Rowan University, Philadelphia Community College, Montgomery Community College, Bryn Mawr Conservatory, Haverford College, Latin American Music Association School of Music and at the National Music Institute in Panama.