Chris Castro | 2021-2022 Season

Two Songs for the OPP

I. Stay Drunk

II. Play Guitar

2017-2018 Season

I-IV

Chris Castro is a composer and double bassist from Brooklyn, New York. His music has been described as “On par with Varèse,” giving him the nickname “The New Colossus of Sound.” He has a Ph.D. in Composition and Theory from UC Davis and a Bachelor's in Music from the Juilliard School in both double bass and composition.

His music has been performed by Sharon Harms and the Composers Conference Ensemble under James Baker (Two Songs from Brooklyn Narcissus), the St. Louis Symphony under David Robertson (Choruses III), pianists Sarah Cahill and Eric Zivian (IV - I), piano duo HereNowHear (Beethausenstro - Castockhoven) and the Lydian String Quartet (Choruses IV). His current composition projects include a work for violist / composer Kurt Rohde, a marimba duo for Chris Froh and Mayumi Hama, and a love song to apathy, Canções dos Desassossego (Songs of Disquiet). Canções dos Desassossego is an evening length song-cycle that sets the poetry and prose of Fernando Pessoa, taking the title from his incomplete novel The Book of Disquiet. It is funded through Chamber Music America's Classical Commissioning Program and will be composed for Sharon Harms and The Lyris Quartet. He is the 2022 Guest Composer for the James Tenney Memorial Symposium, composing and collaborating with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble. He currently lectures at UC Davis and Sacramento State University.