New Music Symposium April 12-13 featuring guest composer Patrick Castillo
Guest artist teaching masterclasses over two days that includes public participation; free recital scheduled Wednesday evening in Wolfe Recital Hall
Article by: Rosa Linda Reynoso
If you’re into new music, April 12-13 promises two types of opportunities to participate in masterclasses and even hear a world music premiere. Del Mar College’s (DMC) Music Department and the DMC Cultural Programs Series have scheduled a New Music Symposium next Tuesday and Wednesday, which includes masterclass instruction from guest composer Patrick Castillo and the April 13 premiere of his piece, Musica para sa dalawa, which is a commission for percussion and cello that he wrote for Current Evolution.
Castillo is founding composer and managing director of “forward-looking, expert ensemble” Third Sound (The New Yorker) and executive director of contemporary music collective Hotel Elefant. In 2021, he was appointed vice president of artistic planning of the New York Philharmonic.
Interested members of the community are invited to register for free masterclasses with the artist, which are scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday, April 12-13, beginning at 3 p.m. in Room B-217 in the General Academic and Music Building Phase II (GAMB II). The facility is located on the Heritage Campus at Kosar and Ayers (directions and campus map).
A free April 13 recital featuring Castillo’s premiere will showcase the talent of DMC Music faculty, including Neil Sisauyhoat and Susan Sturman. Additionally, the event will feature new pieces performed by colleagues Donald Pinson, Daniel Miller and Patty Fagan-Miller.
The recital begins at 7:30 p.m. in Wolfe Recital Hall, located in the Fine Arts Center Music Building on the DMC Heritage Campus at Ayers and Kosar.
For more information about either the masterclasses (registration) or the recital, contact DMC Associate Professor Dr. Roger Petersen at 361-698-1619 or rpetersen@delmar.edu.
About Guest Composer Patrick Castillo
Leading a multifaceted career as a composer, performer, writer and educator, Patrick Castillo’s music has been described as “restrained and reflective but brimming with a variety of texture and sound that draws you into its world” (I Care If You Listen) and has been presented at festivals and venues throughout the United States and internationally, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Schubert Club, Birdfoot Festival, Bavarian Academy of Music in Munich, the Nuremberg Museum of Contemporary Art and the Havana Contemporary Music Festival, among others.
Providing program and liner notes for numerous concert series and recording companies, Castillo has written for New Music Box, Q2 Music, Minnesota Public Radio and other publications. He has been a guest lecturer at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Fordham University, the University of Georgia, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass in Kentucky, String Theory at the Hunter in Chattanooga, TN, and the ChamberFest Cleveland.
He holds degrees in composition and sociology from Vassar College where he served as composer-in-residence for the Mahagonny Ensemble, a collective of performers specializing in 20th century music. His Requiem aeternam for mixed chorus and chamber ensemble, composed for the Mahagonny, was awarded the 2001 Jean Slater Edson Prize. Castillo is also the recipient of the Brian M. Israel Prize, which was awarded by the Society for New Music for his chamber work, Lola.
For more information about the artist, go to www.patrickcastillo.com.
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